Extension Notes: Tuch, Andersson, Carlson
The recent free agency class was further trimmed when the Utah Mammoth signed Nick Schmaltz to an eight-year, $64 million extension. In a new article, The Athletic’s Pierre LeBrun suggests that Schmaltz’s new extension could have an impact on extension negotiations for the projected top forward in the upcoming free agent class, Alex Tuch of the Buffalo Sabres.
Negotiations have been happening for some time between Tuch and the Sabres, with many pundits indicating that Tuch is targeting a similar deal to the eight-year, $85MM extension Adrian Kempe signed with the Los Angeles Kings earlier this year. LeBrun notes that Schmaltz and Tuch have strikingly similar production this year, with Schmaltz arguably having a slight edge. LeBrun believes that Buffalo will now use Schmaltz as their preferred comparison.
Still, compared to Mason Marchment, Anthony Mantha, and Oliver Bjorkstrand, Tuch is easily the top upcoming free agent forward younger than 33, and some teams may be willing to meet $11MM per year. Depending on how rigid the Sabres want to be in negotiations, Tuch would undoubtedly be leaving a large amount of money on the table if he were not to test the free agent waters this summer.
Other extension updates:
- In the same article, LeBrun touched on the situation between the Vegas Golden Knights and defenseman Rasmus Andersson. The Golden Knights had been connected to Andersson for a few years before acquiring him in mid-January, and many believed an extension would be signed relatively quickly. However, no new contract has been signed yet. Regardless, LeBrun indicated that the only reason an extension hasn’t been signed is that Vegas isn’t allowed to do so, yet. They only have $3.2MM projected in cap space for the summer and won’t be able to register a new deal for Andersson until they put Alex Pietrangelo‘s $8.8MM salary back on LTIR when they’re eligible to.
- Lastly, LeBrun suggested that the Anaheim Ducks had little interest in paying the price for defenseman John Carlson as a rental. LeBrun believes that Carlson, his family, and his representation will discuss the transition to Orange County over the last month of the regular season and decide if he’s willing to stay before the playoffs begin. If Carlson extends with the Ducks, it’s believed that it’ll be a two-year contract worth between $8MM and $9MM per season.
Sharks Sign Kyle Chauvette To Amateur Tryout
The Sharks have signed University of New Hampshire starter Kyle Chauvette to an amateur tryout, per Curtis Pashelka of the Bay Area News Group. He will serve as the emergency backup to Alex Nedeljkovic for tonight’s game against the Bruins. Yaroslav Askarov is unable to dress due to an undisclosed injury that became apparent at morning skate today. As Askarov wasn’t ruled out until this morning, San Jose didn’t have time to get an AHL recall coast-to-coast in time for tonight’s contest.
If an injury to Nedeljkovic forces Chauvette into action, it won’t be a miracle story like we’ve seen in the past with EBUGs like David Ayres and Scott Foster. Chauvette just wrapped up his senior season of college hockey yesterday, when UNH’s season ended in the first round of the Hockey East tournament against Northeastern. The 24-year-old transferred to his hometown school last summer after spending the first three seasons of his NCAA career at Union College, where he was named an ECAC Third Team All-Star in 2024-25.
Still, since Chauvette doesn’t have any professional experience, he’s eligible to dress for San Jose as an EBUG. The 6’1″, 190-lb netminder put up respectable numbers behind a New Hampshire squad that finished second-last in the conference, logging a .902 SV% and 2.63 GAA in 34 appearances with a 13-19-1 record and five shutouts. He appeared in all but one game for the Wildcats and should have multiple pro offers in the coming weeks with his NCAA career in the rearview.
The question for the Sharks, still in the thick of a wild-card race in the West, becomes how long they’ll be without Askarov. The 23-year-old has arrived as a full-time NHLer and, while he’s started 40 out of 62 games, the workload was likely going to shift more toward the veteran Nedeljkovic down the stretch anyway.
The 2020 first-round pick has had his moments this season and has received enough goal support to register a 19-17-3 record, but his .886 SV% and 3.56 GAA are some of the worst marks in the league among starters. His -11.2 goals saved above expected this season are eighth-worst in the league, per MoneyPuck.
Compared to Nedeljkovic’s .900 SV%, 2.83 GAA, and 0.5 GSAx in 22 starts and five relief appearances, Askarov was in danger of losing out on some starts with San Jose in a tight race with the Kings, Kraken, and Predators for the second wild-card slot in the West – the Mammoth are virtually locked into the first wild-card slot at this rate with an 81% likelihood of ending up there. Askarov’s recent play – he only has a .869 SV% since the beginning of February – may have begged the question of whether Nedeljkovic should be the Sharks’ Game 1 starter if they emerge from the field.
It’s also worth noting that those numbers from Nedeljkovic have come with him rarely making back-to-back starts – something he hasn’t done since Askarov was out with an illness in December. How will he perform in an increased workload if Askarov misses more than a couple of games?
It’s now where the Sharks’ acquisition of Laurent Brossoit from the Blackhawks in January could pay dividends. The 32-year-old hasn’t seen NHL action since the 2023-24 season due to various lower-body surgeries but has been excellent for both Rockford and San Jose in the AHL this season and is arguably the best veteran third-string option in the league. In 14 games since the trade, he has a .915 SV% and 2.48 GAA for the Barracuda with an 11-2-1 record.
Flames Recall Matvei Gridin, Hunter Brzustewicz
March 12: Brzustewicz was initially recalled under emergency conditions, but his recall has now been converted to a standard one, Pat Steinberg of Sportsnet 960 reports. Calgary now has three regular recalls remaining until the end of the season.
March 8: Two top prospects will bolster the Calgary Flames roster after shaking up their lineup at the Trade Deadline. Winger Matvei Gridin and defenseman Hunter Brzustewicz have both been recalled per a team announcement. The duo will support the Flames as they embark on a five-game road trip beginning on Monday.
Gridin was returned to the minor leagues after a five-game stint in the NHL that stretched from late February to the NHL Trade Deadline. His assignment ensures that Gridin will be eligible for the Calder Cup Playoffs, though the Calgary Wranglers currently sit second-to-last in the AHL’s Pacific Division. Gridin has been a major part of their offense any time he is in the minor leagues. He has 29 points in 37 games this season, good for the sixth-highest points-per-game average on the Wranglers.
The dynamic scorer has has ups-and-downs in his trek to bring that scoring to the top flight. Gridin has a stout seven points in the first 18 games of his NHL career. More than half of those points – five – came during a nine-game stretch from mid-January to early-February, before he was returned to the AHL. It took four games for Gridin to get back onto an NHL scoresheet after he was called back up in late February. That has been the hot-and-cold streak that Calgary’s top wing prospect has ridden through his first pro season.
It was Brzustewicz who stepped up in the Wranglers’ latest action, netting an assist on Saturday night to snap a nine-game scoring drought. That streak began one game after Brzustewicz was reassigned to the minor leagues, after he recorded an assist in his first game back. He, too, has had an up-and-down year, with two points in 18 NHL games and 14 points in 34 AHL games. The puck-moving defenseman has honed his ability to make plays in either end of the ice, while spotlighting his ability to move pucks through the neutral zone – the bread-and-butter of Brzustewicz’s game.
Brzustewicz could have the easier path to a lineup role after Zach Whitecloud left Saturday’s win over the Carolina Hurricanes in the first period. That injury should bump Zayne Parekh and Brayden Pachal up a spot in the lineup, opening room for Brzustewicz to play in his first NHL game since January from the bottom pair. Gridin will have to compete with newcomers Ryan Strome and Victor Olofsson for minutes in Calgary’s bottom-six. The rookie could be the odd-man-out as the Flames look to shore up their center depth. If he sits, Gridin will offer a nice bit of offensive upside from the press box and could potentially replace bruisers Adam Klapka or Ryan Lomberg on the fourth line.
Penguins Recall Alexander Alexeyev
The Penguins announced today that defender Alexander Alexeyev has been recalled from AHL Wilkes-Barre/Scranton. Fellow rearguard Ryan Graves has been sent to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton on a conditioning stint in a corresponding move, although he’ll continue to count on Pittsburgh’s active roster with his full cap impact while in the minors.
Alexeyev, 26, signed a league-minimum deal with the Pens last offseason. He cleared waivers to start the year and has been in and out of the lineup for WBS since then, only playing in 29 out of 57 games. He has three goals and four assists for seven points with a +4 rating.
Pittsburgh is trying to keep its depth defenders fresh amid a rash of injuries that’s seen Samuel Girard and Jack St. Ivany sidelined, although the latter’s been out for a while and is joined by Graves in WBS on a conditioning loan. They’ve dialed in their depth chart this late in the year, meaning Graves, who’s slotted in as a #7/8 option, has not gotten into a game in nearly two months after missing some time with a lower-body injury. They want to get him into some games in the minors, but don’t want to travel without an extra defender in case a last-minute injury comes up, so Alexeyev will arrive today to fill that role.
The 6’4″, 229-lb Alexeyev was brought in to provide some shutdown depth. He once had some real upside, evidenced by the Capitals selecting him 31st overall in the 2018 draft, but it was obvious he wasn’t on the path toward being a full-time NHLer when Washington non-tendered him last summer. Considering the minimal impact he’s had in an AHL role this year, too, he certainly won’t be looking at another one-way deal this summer if he does receive more NHL offers. The Russian could very well entertain offers to return home, where he last played for Salavat Yulaev Ufa in the Kontinental Hockey League on loan from the Caps in the 2020-21 season.
As for Graves, he’s wrapping up the third season of the six-year, $27MM deal he landed from Pittsburgh in free agency in 2023. He’s still not close to warranting his $4.5MM cap hit, but has posted significantly improved defensive results for the Pens in a more limited leverage role this year after a disastrous 2024-25 season. In 19 showings, he’s notched a goal and a -2 rating with 15 hits. The boxcar stats don’t jump off the page, but his under-the-hood numbers are the best they’ve been in quite some time – controlling 52.2% of shot attempts at 5-on-5 in defensive-minded deployment.
Dylan Larkin, Andrew Copp Out At Least Two Weeks
In an ever-tightening battle for their first playoff berth in 10 years, the Red Wings will be without their top two centers for nearly half of their remaining schedule. Head coach Todd McLellan told reporters today, including Jonathan Mills of NHL.com, that Dylan Larkin and Andrew Copp will miss at least two more weeks with their respective injuries before being reassessed.
For Larkin, it’s a considerable downgrade in his status. He’s already missed two games with a non-contact leg injury that he sustained in an awkward fall/toe pick against the Panthers last Friday. He remained with Detroit on their road trip and was initially only designated day-to-day, but it appears additional evaluation or a lack of forward progress in his recovery has forced the Wings to extend his return timeline.
Things haven’t gone well for Detroit so far without their captain and first-line pivot. They shut out the Devils 3-0 in their first game without him, but then dropped a rematch with Florida 4-3 in regulation, surrendering a 3-2 lead they held with 90 seconds left. For a team with the sixth-most difficult remaining schedule in the league (per Tankathon), dropping games to teams out of the playoff race is far from ideal. The silver lining is that the three teams they’re in the chase with – the Blue Jackets, Bruins, and Penguins – are in for an even harder run.
Then Copp, who’s been spectacular this season as a stopgap second-line center between Alex DeBrincat and Patrick Kane, needed help getting off the ice in Tuesday’s loss to the Panthers. He got tangled up with Tomas Nosek in a faceoff midway through the second period, and the Florida center fell on his leg. McLellan has had to completely reshuffle his forward group as a result. DeBrincat and Kane’s unit will be designated as the top line for the time being, with J.T. Compher moving up to center them, while youngsters Emmitt Finnie and Marco Kasper will round out a second line with Larkin running mate and the team’s leading scorer, Lucas Raymond.
Detroit doesn’t have excess scoring depth. The top-six replacements, Compher, Finnie, and Kasper, have combined for 63 points on the year. Copp and Larkin have 90 on their own. The former has only eight goals in 65 games this year but has been especially valuable in turning his unit, which is usually defensively suspect with Kane, into a legitimate driver of possession for the Wings, recording a 55.5% expected goals share at 5-on-5, per MoneyPuck.
Four of Detroit’s six games over the next two weeks are against teams in playoff position – the Lightning, Stars, Canadiens, and Bruins. Tampa and Montreal have pulled away from the rest of the pack, but they’re in direct competition with Boston for a wild-card spot. Another game is against the Senators, who are chasing them for a spot. Only one game in that stretch is against a bottom-feeder, the Flames. As such, Detroit’s postseason odds are back under the 70% mark, per MoneyPuck.
Predators Acquire Dalton Bancroft, Massimo Rizzo From Bruins
The Bruins have acquired left-winger Navrin Mutter from the Predators in exchange for right-winger Dalton Bancroft and center Massimo Rizzo, both teams announced. As the deal was completed after last Friday’s trade deadline, all three players are ineligible to be recalled for the remainder of this season. However, they’ll report to their new AHL affiliates ahead of tomorrow’s trade/loan deadline in that league.
All three players are in the last year of their deals. While Bancroft and Rizzo will remain under Nashville’s control this summer as pending restricted free agents, Mutter is a pending Group VI unrestricted free agent and can reach the open market. He’s three days away from his 25th birthday and was an undrafted free agent signing by Nashville back in 2022 out of OHL Kitchener.
Since then, Mutter has spent the last four seasons playing almost exclusively for AHL Milwaukee, aside from a half-year demotion to ECHL Atlanta in 2023-24. The 6’3″, 203-lb winger essentially amounts to minor-league enforcer depth. He was never a big offensive producer in juniors, and that hasn’t changed in Milwaukee, where he has just four goals and 20 points in 149 career games but owns a whopping 299 penalty minutes.
Nashville takes a similarly-cast player back in the deal in the 25-year-old Bancroft. He’s a few pounds heavier than Mutter but has the same frame and play style. He’s in just his first professional season, though, signing with Boston out of Cornell University last season, also as a UDFA. He clicked at over a point per game for the Big Red as a junior but has just two goals and an assist in 39 games for Providence since debuting last spring, along with 30 penalty minutes.
The most dynamic threat in the swap is Rizzo, who Boston had just acquired from the Flyers on deadline day last week. The 24-year-old pivot only played once for Providence before being sent on the move again. A standout over three years at the University of Denver, Rizzo only managed 16 points in 48 games for Philly’s AHL affiliate last season and had spent the entirety of this year in the ECHL before the trade, where he had a 6-16–22 scoring line in 29 games. He’s the only player in this swap who likely has a sniff at an NHL future, and even that’s a stretch, but the Preds are nonetheless hoping he can rediscover his offensive confidence in Milwaukee over the final few weeks of the season before determining whether to give him a qualifying offer.
Sharks Recall Igor Chernyshov
The Sharks announced today that they’ve recalled left winger Igor Chernyshov from AHL San Jose. With an ample number of healthy forwards on their roster, Chernyshov is already the third of the five post-deadline standard recalls San Jose can make, joining defensemen Nolan Allan and Nick Leddy.
Chernyshov, 20, was the 33rd overall pick by San Jose in the 2024 draft. He has been on an absolutely torrid trajectory ever since. A dynamic 6’2″ power forward, he spent all of his pre-draft development in his native Russia but opted to immediately sign with San Jose and come to North America. Instead of assigning him to the AHL right away last season, the Sharks loaned him to the OHL’s Saginaw Spirit to make a more comfortable adjustment in junior hockey.
While Chernyshov lost a good portion of the season to injury, he was, bar none, the league’s best player when in the lineup. He had 19 goals, 36 assists, and 55 points in just 23 appearances for Saginaw alongside now-Sharks teammate Michael Misa, leading the league with an incredible 2.39 points per game.
It’s no surprise, then, that Chernyshov’s first professional season has gone as swimmingly as it has. He’s fit in well amid a deep minor-league group in San Jose, posting 13 goals and 33 points in 41 games with 36 penalty minutes and a +11 rating. That got him a look on the NHL roster for about a month across December and January while Will Smith was on injured reserve. He got a long look in Smith’s spot on the top line with Macklin Celebrini and William Eklund and did not disappoint, posting a 3-8–11 scoring line and nine hits in 15 games. He also managed 3.27 shot attempts per game, good for eighth on the team.
He’s now getting another look on the active roster, although it doesn’t appear he’ll be getting into game action immediately. Eklund got banged up with a lower-body issue against the Sabres on Tuesday but took line rushes at this morning’s skate and is expected to play tonight against the Bruins, per Sheng Peng of San Jose Hockey Now.
Flames Sign Tyson Gross To Entry-Level Deal
March 12: Gross has moved quickly and finalized an entry-level contract beginning this season with the Flames, per Eric Francis of Sportsnet. He will report to Calgary’s NHL roster and will see games down the stretch, Francis adds. It will be a two-year deal for Gross, making him a restricted free agent at the end of next season.
March 11: Calgary native Tyson Gross is one of the top undrafted free agents available coming out of college this season. His hometown Flames are on the shortlist of teams the center is considering signing with, and he will make his decision in the next few days, Eric Francis of Sportsnet reports.
Gross, 23, just wrapped up his junior season with St. Cloud State. Serving as the team’s captain, he doubled his previous career high in goals en route to an 18-23–41 scoring line in 36 games. The 6’3″, 194-lb pivot saw his season end last week, getting swept 2-0 by Minnesota-Duluth in the quarterfinals of the NCHC tournament. They won’t be getting an at-large berth to the national tournament, so Gross ends his career in St. Cloud with 34 goals, 52 assists, and 86 points across 106 games over the last three years.
There’s little reason to believe Gross will replicate those offensive totals at the NHL level, but there’s a chance he can carve out a role as a depth checking center in Calgary or be a higher-end minor-league piece. He was initially draft-eligible back in 2021. He’d played just nine junior ‘A’ games that year due to COVID and was understandably passed over. Even against tougher competition in the USHL in his post-draft year, though, he only managed eight points in 23 games with the Fargo Force. It wasn’t until moving to the Cedar Rapids RoughRiders for his DY+2 that he came out of his shell as a playmaker, and he was able to carry that momentum directly into a 20-point freshman season at St. Cloud.
The Flames are in need of some size down the middle in their prospect pool, so their interest in Gross makes sense. Their situation improved somewhat when they acquired the signing rights to 6’2″, 203-lb Jonathan Castagna from the Mammoth in the MacKenzie Weegar deal, and Francis reports the junior center is also open to turning pro with the Flames when his season at Cornell wraps up.
Blues Sign Calle Rosen To Two-Year, Two-Way Extension
The Blues announced today that left-shot defender Calle Rosen has signed a two-year, two-way contract extension. The deal pays him $850K in the NHL and $500K in the AHL next year before seeing an NHL pay bump to $900K in 2027-28.
Rosen is in his second stint with the Blues organization. He hasn’t seen an NHL game since his first go-around in St. Louis ended following the 2023-24 season, though. He signed with the Avalanche on a two-way deal the following summer and did the same with the Capitals last offseason before Washington traded him back to St. Louis for fellow minor-league depth defender Corey Schueneman last November.
Now 32, Rosen has never really been a full-time NHL piece and has had multiple opportunities to return home to Sweden since arriving in North America with the Maple Leafs as an undrafted free agent in 2018. Instead, the 6’1″ lefty has chosen to pursue an often thankless career as a minor-league mainstay who consistently churns out quality bottom-pairing hockey in his NHL call-ups. He’s been quite well-compensated for an AHLer – his new minors salary is actually a small pay cut from the $525K he landed on his deal with the Caps last summer – but still, it’s rare to see an import player opt for that lifestyle instead of a more stable pro career in Europe, especially considering he has previous Swedish Hockey League experience.
Rosen, now in his ninth season stateside, has long been one of the AHL’s better puck-movers. He had seven points in nine games with Hershey to start the year and has since been a valuable contributor on St. Louis’ struggling affiliate in Springfield, leading their blue line with a 7-19–26 scoring line in 47 games. He was an AHL All-Star back in 2019, won a Calder Cup in Toronto the year before, and now is up to 224 points in 407 career minor-league games.
It’s surprising he hasn’t gotten more NHL opportunities. The only time he got an extended run on a roster was with St. Louis in the 2022-23 campaign. While he served mostly as a #7 piece, he was absolutely excellent when deployed, putting up eight goals and 18 points with a +19 rating despite only averaging 15:36 of ice time per game across 49 outings. None of that production came on special teams, either. He’s fairly consistently had positive relative Corsi shares at 5-on-5 and, while he’s far from being a physical threat, has shown he can be an efficient driver of offense in limited minutes.
Maple Leafs Recall Michael Pezzetta
The Maple Leafs announced this morning that they’ve recalled winger Michael Pezzetta from AHL Toronto. With no pressing injuries, he counts as their second of five allotted post-deadline standard recalls, following the team’s recall of Benoit-Olivier Groulx on Tuesday.
Pezzetta, a day ahead of his 28th birthday, hasn’t played in the NHL since the end of last season. The Maple Leafs signed him to a two-year contract as an unrestricted free agent last July, but he was placed on waivers during training camp and didn’t make the opening night roster. He signed a one-way deal for the league-minimum salary each year, giving him a $812.5K cap hit and a full $775K paycheck this season despite not seeing any time on the NHL roster until March.
In 37 games for the Marlies this year, Pezzetta has put up four goals and 10 points with a -7 rating and 52 penalty minutes. His workload is limited by design, as he counts toward the AHL’s veteran maximum and is one of the purest enforcers/grinders in the game. In fact, his 0.27 points per game this season is a career high in both the NHL and the AHL, his six points in just eight AHL games back in 2021-22 notwithstanding.
Selected by the Canadiens in the sixth round back in 2016, Pezzetta will play in his fifth straight NHL season if he gets into a game (which it looks like he will tonight against the Ducks, per Terry Koshan of the Toronto Sun). He’s totaled 200 games, all with Montreal, with a 15-23–38 scoring line, a -9 rating, and an average of 8:03 of ice time per game.