Offseason Checklist: San Jose Sharks
The offseason has arrived for half of the league’s teams that aren’t taking part in the playoffs plus those who have already been eliminated. Accordingly, it’s now time to examine what they will need to accomplish over the coming months. Next up is a look at San Jose.
While the Sharks extended their franchise-worst playoff drought to seven consecutive years, it’s fair to say that this season was a step in the right direction for their rebuild. The team saw their point total jump by 34, allowing them to hang around the playoff picture longer than a lot of people would have expected coming into the year. Even with that big jump, they still have a lot to try to accomplish this offseason.
Rebuild The Back End
Last summer, GM Mike Grier put his back end through a bit of an overhaul as he tried to raise the floor of his group. That resulted in the signings of Dmitry Orlov and John Klingberg, while Nick Leddy was brought in via a rare summer waiver claim. There was some hit-and-miss within that group but on the whole, the back end was better so Grier gets a passing grade on that front.
Now, he needs to do it all over again, perhaps to an even bigger extent this summer. Among regulars on their roster this season, the only ones under contract are Orlov and Sam Dickenson. Meanwhile, Shakir Mukhamadullin is a pending restricted free agent. Everyone else – Klingberg, Leddy, Mario Ferraro, and Vincent Desharnais – will hit the open market this summer, potentially leaving four roster spots to try to fill.
Ferraro is the one that they’d undoubtedly like to keep and he has made it clear that he’d like to stay. But as one of the better players set to be available, he’ll have the leverage to command a long-term deal, something that the Sharks don’t appear inclined to offer just yet. Short-term reunions with Klingberg and Desharnais could be explored while Leddy almost certainly won’t be back.
It’s safe to say that Grier will need to make a move or two on the free agent market but given the thinned-out group, he’ll also need to do something on the trade front. With a deep cupboard of draft picks and prospects, they’ll be in a good position to add there. But after a summer of turnover last year, it could be an even bigger one with potentially four newcomers (perhaps including prospect Eric Pohlkamp) joining San Jose’s blueline.
Core Extension Talks
The Sharks were led offensively this season by a pair of sophomore players, Macklin Celebrini and Will Smith. Both players will be extension-eligible on July 1st, leaving a 10-week window to try to work out an eight-year deal before that option gets eliminated with the new CBA beginning in mid-September. It’s fair to say that both players are part of the long-term core group so getting them locked up should be high on the priority list.
Celebrini is coming off an absolutely dynamic season. He took his offensive game to an elite level, potting 45 goals and 70 assists to finish fourth in the league in scoring, a performance that likely will have him finishing within the top five in Hart Trophy balloting (although he’s not among the three finalists). It’s very rare for a second-year player to have that type of impact and he has already become the elite piece they hoped they were getting when they made him the first-overall pick in 2024. And while this won’t factor directly into his contract talks, he played quite well for Canada at the Olympics and is currently impressing at the Worlds as well.
The priciest post-entry-level contract in terms of AAV is Edmonton’s Connor McDavid, who signed an eight-year pact worth $12.5MM per season. Given Celebrini’s performance this year and the considerable upward movement in the salary cap, there’s a good chance there will soon be a new record on that front. In terms of cap percentage, McDavid’s deal was 15.72% of the Upper Limit when it was signed, an amount that would equate to around $17.8MM in 2027-28 based on current cap projections. It’s fair to say Celebrini won’t command something in that territory but something in the $14MM range or even $15MM on an eight-year deal certainly feels palatable. And if that’s not a number San Jose is willing to go to just yet, they can wait out the year but would only be able to do a seven-year pact next summer.
Smith, meanwhile, had a solid second NHL season himself, recording 24 goals and 35 assists in 69 games to finish second on the team in scoring. While he was drafted as a center, he hasn’t played there much so far in the NHL but that could change down the road depending on how Michael Misa, another high draft pick, performs in that role. Whether it’s at center or the wing, the Sharks are hoping he’s a top-line fixture and Smith’s camp will be expecting an extension offer in that territory. Again, given the big bumps coming to the salary cap, there could be some sticker shock on the price, which plausibly could approach the $10MM mark on an eight-year agreement.
Given that there is some variance potential in where both sides think Smith will land, it’s entirely possible that an extension isn’t worked out this summer. In that case, they can simply let next season play out and use that performance to help shape contract talks. While it’s possible that they could look to do a bridge contract as they did with William Eklund last summer, that’s probably not the most advisable approach at this time; there’s no need to commit that soon to a short-term second pact.
Add PK Help
With a patchwork (albeit improved) back end and a goalie tandem that was a little shaky (Yaroslav Askarov’s rookie year was hot and cold and Alex Nedeljkovic is an okay backup), it’s unsurprising that the Sharks were once again a team that got scored on a lot. While they shaved 20 goals off last year’s number, they still allowed 290, more than 3.5 per game. Some of that can be attributed to what was just noted but the penalty kill also has to wear some of the blame.
San Jose allowed 58 power play goals this season, sixth-most in the NHL. Their success rate was 76.4%, 26th in the league. These are numbers that can definitely stand to be improved upon. And if they have genuine playoff aspirations next season, then these numbers have to be improved upon.
One way to do that is to get some help up front. San Jose’s four most-used forwards shorthanded in terms of ATOI per game were Ty Dellandrea, Collin Graf, Alexander Wennberg, and Barclay Goodrow. Dellandrea and Wennberg were second-wave players in 2024-25, Graf was a rookie, and Goodrow is widely expected to be a buyout waiting to happen. With due respect to these players, they can certainly be improved upon.
With a young team, it should come as little surprise that the Sharks struggle at the faceoff dot. Getting a checker who can win draws is a good place to start. A veteran who can fill a fourth-line checking specialist role would also help. This isn’t going to turn things around by any stretch but adding a few percent to the success rate is probably worth a few points in the standings as well. Those adds would also allow the young core a bit more time to develop before potentially being thrust into that role down the road as well.
It’s also worth noting here that San Jose’s four most-used blueliners shorthanded in terms of ATOI were Ferraro, Desharnais, Timothy Liljegren, and Vincent Iorio. In other words, two pending UFAs, someone who was traded at the deadline, and someone lost to a waiver claim. As Grier looks to reshape his back end, finding some reliable penalty killers will be a particular point of emphasis.
Add A Core Piece
Over the course of the rebuild, the Sharks have brought in several core pieces, headlined up front by Celebrini, Smith, Misa, and Eklund, with Dickinson representing the future on the back end. Their good fortune in the Draft Lottery will ensure they get another one as they now hold the second selection in next month’s draft. They should get a core piece from that pick.
In a nutshell, that alone would check the box in this section. They will get a future core player in the draft to add to their stockpile. But if they’re aiming on getting to the playoffs next season, Grier needs to be aiming for a current core addition as well.
In a perfect world, that player would be in the same age group as the current core. Having said that, the only way to get that is to probably trade the number two pick. For the right young player, that shouldn’t be off the table but it’s probably not Plan A either.
But this is a young enough group that they could stand to add a top-six forward up front as they did with Tyler Toffoli two summers ago. And, obviously, a core defender or two would go a long way. They were in on Dougie Hamilton last offseason but it’s believed he invoked his trade protection to stay in New Jersey. It’s possible they could try to circle back on that front but they might be better off looking elsewhere.
San Jose has more than ample cap space this summer, more than $41MM, per PuckPedia. They have plenty of trade chips. So, even with a thinned-out UFA market, Grier should be able to add at least one core player to help his current group while getting a long-term core addition via the draft. They’re already set up nicely for the future and should add to that upside this summer.
Photo courtesy of Stan Szeto-Imagn Images.
Michael Brandsegg-Nygard To Join Norway At Worlds
Midway through the World Championship, Norway will get a significant boost to its roster. NHL.com’s Patrick Williams reports (Twitter link) that winger Michael Brandsegg-Nygard will fly to Switzerland to join the team for the rest of the tournament.
The 20-year-old got his first taste of NHL action this season, getting into 14 games for the Red Wings where he picked up his first point, an assist, while averaging 12:31 of ice time. Brandsegg-Nygard was much more productive in the minors, however, as he potted 20 goals and 24 assists in 60 games with AHL Grand Rapids in his first full season in North America.
Brandsegg-Nygard wasn’t expected to be available to suit up in this tournament with the Griffins being the top team in the Western Conference this season and the top seed left in the AHL playoffs after Providence was ousted early. However, Grand Rapids saw their playoff run come to an end last night, opening up the opportunity for the youngster to represent his country after putting up eight points in eight postseason contests.
Brandsegg-Nygard, the 15th overall pick back in 2024, becomes just the fifth NHL-affiliated player on the Norwegian roster. He’s the lone one of the five with NHL experience under his belt and is just one of two first-rounders, the other being Anaheim’s Stian Solberg (selected eight spots after Brandsegg-Nygard that year). Norway sits fifth in their pool standings at the moment and needs to get to fourth to qualify for the quarterfinals so they’ll be counting on Brandsegg-Nygard to come in and immediately be a key contributor.
Afternoon Notes: Stone, Devils, Korczak
The hole in the Vegas Golden Knights lineup will remain as they head into Game 2 of the Western Conference Finals. Winger Mark Stone will miss his fifth-straight game with a lower-body injury sustained in Game 3 of the second round, per Jesse Granger of The Athletic. He had three goals and seven points in nine playoff games prior to his injury.
Stone continues to fill a top role with the Golden Knights when healthy. He finished the regular season with 28 goals and 73 points in 60 games – a full-season pace of 39 goals and 100 points. Vegas has bumped Pavel Dorofeyev up to the top-line, and added Brandon Saad to the lineup, in Stone’s absence. Dorofeyev has excelled, with six goals and seven points since Stone went down. Saad has two assists, including on the opening goal of the Western Conference Finals. Vegas will continue to bank on their production while Stone targets a Game 3 return.
Other notes around the hockey world:
- The New Jersey Devils have picked up their third-year option with the ECHL’s Adirondack Thunder per a team announcement. New Jersey began their affiliation with the Thunder in the 2017-18 season, two seasons after the club relocated to the city in place of the Stockton Flames. Adirondack has made the postseason in five of their seven seasons in partnership with the Devils, going as far as the Conference Finals twice. They were knocked out of the 2026 Kelly Cup Playoffs in a first round series that went to seven games and featured three overtimes. Their lineup was led by Devils’ defense prospect Jeremy Hanzel and goaltender Jeremy Brodeur, son of Devils legend Martin Brodeur.
- Former New York Rangers prospect Ryder Korczak will continue his career in Slovakia’s top league. He has signed a one-year contract with HC Slovan Bratislava of the Tipsport Liga per a team announcement. Korczak spent last season on a one-year deal with Vlci Zilina. He finished the year with a team-leading 21 goals, and 44 total points, in 52 games played. The 2021 third-round pick was unable to continue his scoring spark into the AHL. He racked up 35 points in 117 games across two seasons with the Hartford Wolf Pack – and 10 games with the Syracuse Crunch. Korczak was a premier junior scorer, racking up 246 points in 248 games across six seasons in the WHL. He seems to have found the same spark overseas and should move into a key role on a Bratislava squad that finished second in Slovakia this season.
Flames Sign Kirill Zarubin To Entry-Level Contract
The Calgary Flames have signed goaltender Kirill Zarubin to a three-year, entry-level contract per Pat Steinberg of Sportsnet 960. The 2024 third-round draft pick spent last season in the MHL, Russia’s junior league. He was named an MHL All-Star and finished the season with 26 wins and a .930 save percentage in 48 games played. Those marks ranked fourth and 13th among 81 goalies with more than 10 games played.
Calgary acquired the draft pick used to select Zarubin in the 2024 trade that sent Noah Hanifin to the Vegas Golden Knights. The Flames used that pick to draft their fourth goaltender, and their third out of Russia, since 2020.
Zarubin brings long legs and a quickness in the crease. Those traits helped him stand out despite filling a split role through parts of the last three seasons with Chicago Blackhawks prospect Ilya Kanarsky. The duo backstopped an AKM Tula squad that made it to – but lost – the MHL semi-finals in all four seasons under their helm.
Zarubin will step onto a crowded Flames depth chart. Eight different goaltenders played games for Calgary’s AHL and ECHL affiliates last season. Zarubin will likely head to the latter to help ease his transition into the pro flight. His addition will provide more stability to Arsenii Sergeev as he moves into a full-time AHL role.
Mario Ferraro Likely To Test Unrestricted Free Agency
San Jose Sharks defenseman Mario Ferraro is likely “going to UFA,” Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet reported on today’s 32 Thoughts Podcast. Friedman said it “doesn’t sound like” there has been much progress on a contract extension between Ferraro and the Sharks, and as a result it appears likely the veteran defenseman will test the open market on July 1.
This confirms what Sharks GM Mike Grier told the media at the end of the season, saying Ferraro would “probably at least test free agency” before finalizing any potential extension with San Jose. (Quote via Josh Frojelin of San Jose Hockey Now)
While there is enough time between now and the start of free agency for things to change, Friedman’s report indicates that Ferraro’s time as a Shark is soon to come to an end. Ferraro was a second-round pick by the team (No. 49 overall) at the 2017 NHL Draft, plucked from the Des Moines Buccaneers of the USHL. After two solid seasons of college hockey at UMass-Amherst, Ferraro broke into the NHL in 2019-20. He earned an NHL spot out of training camp and hasn’t relinquished it since.
Across seven seasons in the Bay Area, Ferraro played in 490 NHL games, scoring 114 points. While his arrival in San Jose coincided with the team’s decline from consistent playoff contender to basement-dwelling rebuilder, Ferraro has been a steady presence on the Sharks blueline throughout those lean years.
A captain in the NCAA, Ferraro quickly took on more of a leadership role in San Jose. In 2021-22, his age-23 campaign, Ferraro was named an alternate captain and has held onto that status through 2025-26.
Now 27 years old, Ferraro has a chance to earn a life-changing contract this summer.
He’s on the younger side when it comes to unrestricted free agents, meaning interested teams can go into negotiations with Ferraro with less fear of the risks of age-related decline. That factor will help him drum up league-wide interest on the open market.
An additional factor aiding Ferraro’s case in free agency is his experience. While he has not yet played in the playoffs in his career, Ferraro has handled a top-four, if not top-pairing workload for a half-decade. His average time-on-ice per game for his career is 21:14, but that’s weighed down by his rookie season, when he averaged just 15:53 per game. From 2020-21 through this past season, Ferraro has averaged 22:00 time on ice per game.
He has consistently played a heavy workload in San Jose, including in 2023-24, when he was the team’s No. 1 defenseman. He has also been a fixture on the penalty kill, leading the team in time-on-ice per game while short-handed in three of the last four seasons.
While offensive production has never been a major element of Ferraro’s game, his ability to weather significant minutes stands out in what is expected to be a thin free agent class. AFP Analytics projects Ferraro to receive a four-year, $5.1MM AAV deal as a free agent, though that could be a conservative estimate given the way player costs have risen as projected increases in the cap have gotten priced into contracts on a more regular basis.
San Jose has more than enough cap space to afford to match any offer made to Ferraro in free agency. PuckPedia projects the Sharks to have nearly $42MM in cap space this summer. But the Sharks have to plan carefully, as they have extensions for their young stars to consider down the line, and they won’t want to commit too much money too far down the line in order to preserve as much financial flexibility as possible for when Macklin Celebrini and others are eating up significant portions of the cap.
Additionally, taxes are a factor that works against the Sharks whenever they look to bid on free agents. While they have had success in the past on the open market, suggesting they have been able to work around this obstacle, the reality is players take home a greater portion of their salary playing in a low-tax market such as Tampa Bay, or Nashville, than in a market like San Jose.
The tax calculator tool provided by Cardinal Point Athlete Advisors shows that if Ferraro were to receive identical offers at AFP Analytics’ projected salary ($5.13MM) from San Jose and Tampa Bay, respectively, Ferraro would pay an additional $705K per year if he took the Sharks’ offer, compared to Tampa Bay’s. Over the lifetime of a four-year contract, that is nearly $3MM difference between the two offers.
In other words, the Sharks and other markets are at a natural disadvantage when competing for free agents. Of course, the Sharks do have some advantages, such as their climate and up-and-coming roster. It’s difficult to isolate the free agent decision-making process to just one variable. And it has to be said that the true tax situation NHL players navigate is far more complex than a simple side-by-side calculator will be able to reflect.
But given all of the things working in Ferraro’s favor, it’s no surprise that he would want to see what kind of offers he’ll receive from around the league before deciding whether to move on from the only NHL franchise he’s ever known.
Photos courtesy of Stan Szeto-Imagn Images
Wild Hoping To Re-Sign Michael McCarron
The Minnesota Wild “badly want to re-sign” mid-season trade addition Michael McCarron, reports Michael Russo of The Athletic. McCarron is set to become an unrestricted free agent on July 1. Wild GM Bill Guerin spoke on McCarron’s status in his end-of-season media availability, saying “we have a ton of interest in bringing Mac back. We thought he was a really good fit.”
The interest in finding a way to an extension appears to be mutual. McCarron said in his own end-of-season media availability that he appreciated the faith Guerin and the Wild showed in him when they dealt a second-round pick to the Nashville Predators to add him at the trade deadline. 
But he also added that he is “looking for” security in his next contract, calling himself someone who has yet to take “that next step financially” in his career thus far.
McCarron is lined up to potentially receive a life-changing contract as a free agent this summer. The 31-year-old’s most lucrative contract was one he signed with the Predators in 2024, and that contained a base salary of $900K.
AFP Analytics projects McCarron to receive a two-year, $2MM AAV contract this summer, but that could very well be an extremely conservative projection. Russo and colleague Joe Smith wrote a week ago that McCarron “may be able to get a $4 million or $5 million payday” given the scarcity of centers on the free agent market.
Offers at that kind of value would almost certainly price McCarron out of Minnesota. The cap hit of franchise forward Kirill Kaprizov is set to balloon from $9MM to $17MM this summer, and the Wild have several other pending free agents to re-sign, including Mats Zuccarello, Vladimir Tarasenko, Zach Bogosian, Marcus Johansson, Nick Foligno, and restricted free agent Bobby Brink. They also, of course, want to preserve as much cap space as possible to make further additions via trade or free agency. While the Wild appear eager to retain McCarron, and McCarron seems fully willing to commit to Minnesota, the money simply may not make sense for either side.
As a free agent, McCarron could be a coveted bottom-six center option. The Wade Arnott (Newport Sports Management) client brings coveted size to the position, standing 6’6″, 232 pounds. He showed himself to be capable as an NHL penalty-killer both with the Predators and with the Wild, and has long been an asset at the faceoff dot. McCarron won 52.5% of his draws in 2025-26 and had a 53.7% win rate during his time in Music City.
There are limitations to McCarron’s game, of course, and none is more pronounced than his offense. McCarron quite simply hasn’t been able to produce much offense at the professional level, save for a strong rookie campaign in the AHL and a solid 12-goal, 22-point season with the Predators in 2023-24. But McCarron plays the kind of role where teams aren’t going to be counting on him for offense, so it’s easy to see why he’d attract a lot of interest as a free agent center among teams looking to bolster their bottom-six.
Minnesota is going to be one of those teams, but it’s unclear at this time whether the finances are going to be right for either side.
Photos courtesy of James Carey Lauder-Imagn Images
Cale Makar To Miss Game 2 Of Western Conference Final
5/22/26: Bednar told the media today that Makar will miss game two against the Golden Knights tonight. While Makar’s absence has been designated day-to-day, it’s unclear at what point he’ll ultimately be able to return to the Avalanche lineup. The team struggled without Makar in game one, dropping the contest to Vegas by a 4-2 score.
Bednar said after the game that “some of the areas that [the team] struggled with” are the things Makar is best at. The Avalanche stuck with Ahcan for game one, leaving Blankenburg as a healthy scratch once again. Because of the loss, it will be interesting to see whether Bednar makes a change on his blueline. The Avalanche entered the series as favorites to win the Stanley Cup, but Makar’s injury threatens that status.
5/20/26: The Colorado Avalanche will be without star defenseman Cale Makar for the first game of their Western Conference Final series against the Vegas Golden Knights, head coach Jared Bednar announced today. Bednar classified Makar’s undisclosed injury as day-to-day and said that he does expect Makar to return relatively quickly – but not in time for game one.
Makar’s health is one of the key storylines to track for the upcoming series given Makar’s importance to the Avalanche as well as his status as arguably the game’s top defenseman.
The status of Makar has been the subject of speculation since game one against the Wild, when he left the ice after taking a big hit from Wild forward Marcus Foligno. He was limited to just 17:11 time on ice per game in the team’s 9-6 win. It’s not known whether the injury Makar is currently dealing with is in any way related to what happened in game one of the previous round.
The loss of Makar – even for just a single game – is very significant for the Avalanche. As mentioned, he is arguably the top blueliner in the world. The 27-year-old is a two-time Norris Trophy winner, and has routinely elevated his game in the playoffs. His heroics in the 2022 postseason, when he scored 29 points in 20 games, resulted in a Stanley Cup championship for his team and a Conn Smythe Trophy win recognizing his individual efforts.
Colorado now sits as the favorites to win another Stanley Cup, but Makar hasn’t been leading the charge in quite the same way. The Avalanche’s power play has struggled all year, and that can partially explain why Makar’s production is down somewhat from prior campaigns. After two consecutive years reaching the 90-point plateau, Makar scored 79 points in 75 games this past season. That’s still exceptional production, of course, but a little shy of the normal standard he’s set. So far in these playoffs, Makar has five points in nine games.
His slight decline in numbers should not diminish the significance of his injury. The Avalanche have lost one of their very best players for the start of this series, and even though they are favored against the Golden Knights, they would surely prefer to navigate game one with one of their best players roaming the blueline.
Bob Hartley Announces Retirement
Bob Hartley, a longtime head coach in the NHL who won a Stanley Cup championship and a Jack Adams Award, announced his retirement from coaching today. Hartley coached Lokomotiv Yaroslavl of the KHL to a Gagarin Cup title earlier this week.
The announcement concludes a coaching career that began all the way back in the late 1980s. Hartley got his start in junior hockey, coaching the CJHL’s Hawkesbury Hawks. He coached the team to back-to-back titles in 1990 and 1991, achievements that landed him a role coaching in the QMJHL for the Laval Titan. In two seasons in Laval, Hartley went 81-52-7, winning a league championship in his second season in his role.
After winning a title with Laval, Hartley continued to climb the coaching ladder, taking an assistant coaching job in the AHL with the Cornwall Aces, on the staff of future Jack Adams winner Jacques Martin. Martin left for an NHL role with the Quebec Nordiques after just a year, leaving Hartley as head coach of the Aces.
He won division titles in each of his two years as head coach in Cornwall. The Aces were at the time the affiliate of the Nordiques, who in 1995 relocated to Colorado. The Avalanche let Cornwall go dormant, and switched their hockey operations personnel, including players and coaches, to the Hershey Bears. Hartley won a Calder Cup title in his first season as head coach of the Bears, in 1996-97.
Hartley’s Calder Cup win put him on the path to becoming a future NHL head coach, and he didn’t have to wait too long to get his chance. In 1998, Avalanche head coach Marc Crawford resigned after his team fell in the first round of the playoffs, just two seasons removed from leading the Avalanche to a Stanley Cup. The Avalanche elevated Hartley to the position of head coach, and was an instant success. In his first two campaigns on the job, Hartley defeated Scotty Bowman’s Detroit Red Wings in back-to-back playoffs, but fell to the Dallas Stars in the Western Conference Final in both years.
In his third season, Hartley’s Avalanche won 52 games and won the Stanley Cup, delivering a long-awaited championship to legendary defenseman Ray Bourque. The following year, in 2002, Hartley’s Avalanche fell to the Red Wings in the Western Conference Final. Hartley was fired after 31 games in 2002-03, but didn’t wait long for another job. He was hired by the Atlanta Thrashers that same season. While he had inherited a team capable of contending for Stanley Cups in Colorado, Hartley was dealt the opposite hand in Atlanta, joining a franchise that averaged under 20 wins in its first three seasons.
Hartley was able to make his mark in Atlanta. He guided the franchise through serious off-ice adversity, and under his leadership, the Thrashers entered their strongest period in franchise history. Hartley’s 2006-07 team was the only Thrashers team to reach the playoffs, winning a Southeast Division title with a 43-28-11 record. The following year, he was fired by Atlanta after an 0-6-0 start to their 2007-08 season.
Hartley spent 2011-12 in Switzerland coaching the ZSC Lions, and he had a successful tenure there, winning a National League title. That helped pave the way for what would be Hartley’s final head coaching role in the NHL – a job with the Calgary Flames. Hartley missed the playoffs in three of his four seasons in Calgary, but his 2014-15 campaign stands out as he went 45-30-7 and won the Jack Adams Award as coach of the year. A year later, he was let go by the Flames. From 2016-17 through 2020-21, Hartley was head coach of Latvia’s national team.
In 2018-19, Hartley became a head coach in the KHL for the first time, and in his time coaching both Avangard Omsk and Lokomotiv, he has been to three Gagarin Cup finals and won the trophy twice. We at PHR would like to extend our best wishes to Hartley in his retirement and congratulate him on an exceptional coaching career.
Photos courtesy of Ron Chenoy-USA TODAY Sports
Snapshots: Duggan, Walsh, DiDomenico
New Jersey Devils director of player development Meghan Duggan has been hired as general manager of PWHL Hamilton, one of the new expansion teams joining the highest level of professional women’s hockey. The hire means Duggan will leave the Devils organization after a half-decade in her player development role. Hailey Salvian of The Athletic notes that Duggan has had some association with the PWHL during her time in New Jersey, serving as special consultant to the hockey operations staff and as a member of the league’s player safety committee.
As a player, Duggan was a highly-decorated captain of the U.S. National Team. Her career in hockey operations began on the coaching staff of Clarkson University’s women’s hockey program in 2014-15, and she coached there for two seasons while also playing in the now-defunct CWHL and NWHL, precursor leagues to the PWHL. In 2021, she was hired by the Devils as director of player development. It seems likely that the Devils, led by a new GM in Sunny Mehta, will look to fill Duggan’s former role at some point this summer.
Other notes from around the hockey world:
- Former Devils minor-league defenseman Reilly Walsh has signed a one-year contract extension with KHL club Barys Astana. The 27-year-old blueliner was a third-round pick of the Devils at the 2017 draft. A near point-per-game defenseman while he played college hockey at Harvard, Walsh developed into a quality offensive top-four defenseman at the AHL level. He crossed the 40-point plateau twice and had a total of 159 points in 304 career AHL games. Walsh scored 32 points in 70 games for the Ontario Reign in 2024-25, but with over 260 games at the professional level, he was no longer considered a “development player” by the AHL’s development rule, a factor that has prompted many quality AHL players to take contracts overseas. He signed with Astana and played very well there in 2025-26, scoring 16 goals and 46 points, tied for the team lead in scoring with Mike Vecchione, a fellow AHL veteran who left the North American pro ranks last summer.
- Chris DiDomenico, a former Ottawa Senators forward, has decided to leave the Swiss National League after eight seasons as a top player there. DiDomenico has signed with the SHL’s IF Björklöven, per a team announcement. The 37-year-old forward played in 24 games for the Senators in 2017-18, having been signed by the team after two seasons as a quality top-six forward in the Swiss top division. Two members of the Senators’ coaching staff at the time, head coach Guy Boucher (SC Bern) and associate coach Marc Crawford (ZSC Lions), had coached against DiDomenico prior to arriving in Ottawa. DiDomenico was not the only forward the Senators signed out of Switzerland at that time, though he was not as successful in the NHL as fellow signing Tom Pyatt. DiDomenico returned to Switzerland in 2018 and has been a star forward there for the last eight years. Now, he’ll look to bring those qualities to Sweden.
Byron Froese Expected To Retire
According to a report from Dmitry Storozhev of Championat, forward Byron Froese is expected to retire following Lokomotiv Yaroslavl’s second consecutive Gagarin Cup championship. Froese has spent the past two years in the KHL after a successful 12-year career in North America.
Speaking to the outlet after Game 6, Froese said, “I don’t know, I need time. I’ll probably finish, but you can never say never. I just need some rest. I’ve only been home for about two months in the last two years. So I need time to think and discuss it with my family.”
Froese, 35, began his professional career in 2009 when he was selected with the 119th overall pick of that summer’s draft by the Chicago Blackhawks. After spending a few more years in the WHL with the Everett Silvertips and Red Deer Rebels, Froese made the jump to professional play for the 2011-12 season. For the first several years of his career, Froese split his time between the AHL and ECHL.
Failing to carve out a path in the Blackhawks organization, Froese signed as an AHL free agent with the Toronto Marlies and was signed to a standard NHL contract by the Toronto Maple Leafs a year later. Having his contract upgraded wasn’t a surprise, given Froese scored 18 goals and 42 points in 46 games with the Marlies with a +22 rating.
In Toronto, Froese enjoyed his longest stay in the NHL over a single season. During the 2014-15 campaign, Froese appeared in 56 games for the Maple Leafs, scoring two goals and five points with a -11 rating, averaging 12:38 of ice time per game. Next season, toward the trade deadline, Froese was included in the trade package to the Tampa Bay Lightning in the deal that sent Brian Boyle to Toronto.
That trade was the starting point of a nomadic portion of Froese’s career. From the 2017-18 campaign to the 2022-23 season, Froese played in the Lightning, Montreal Canadiens, Philadelphia Flyers, Calgary Flames, and Vegas Golden Knights organizations. His last appearance in the NHL came during the 2023-24 season with the Golden Knights, when Froese registered one assist in 16 contests.
If this is the end, Froese will finish with seven goals and 20 points in 141 games with a -15 rating. Additionally, he’s credited with 142 goals and 312 points in 513 AHL contests, somehow finishing with a net-zero rating. Sadly, Froese never achieved champion status at any level in North America, but he can at least retire with two Gagarin Cup rings.
We at PHR congratulate Froese on carving out a career that spanned two continents over 15 seasons, and wish him the best on his next chapter if he does hang up his skates this summer.