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Vegas Golden Knights Have Had Extension Talks With Adin Hill

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No one in or around the Vegas Golden Knights organization is thinking about anything other than tomorrow’s Game 3 of the Stanley Cup Final. A strong road performance could give the team a 3-0 stranglehold on the series and send them well on their way to fulfilling owner Bill Foley’s original “Cup in six years” proclamation.

It’s never too early to start talking about the future, however, and Vegas does have some notable storylines that will dot their offseason, which begins later this month regardless of the Final’s result. One of them is their goaltending situation – breakout netminder Adin Hill is an unrestricted free agent at season’s end.

Today, The Athletic’s Joe Smith released an extensive profile piece on the 27-year-old, in which he noted Vegas made an extension offer to Hill in March after he sustained a lower-body injury that kept him out for the rest of the regular season. Smith says it was a “nice” raise above his current $2.175MM cap hit, but Hill didn’t want to begin negotiations until Vegas’ season concluded.

Hill has done more than enough to earn the commitment, rocketing himself to Vegas’ likely Conn Smythe winner despite not even seeing the ice in the first round against the Winnipeg Jets. But Vegas’ goaltending situation is one of the murkier ones in the league heading into 2023-24, and a Hill extension would likely cause a cascading effect.

37-year-old Jonathan Quick likely won’t be brought back after coming over from Los Angeles (via Columbus) at the deadline. He played well in a few appearances for Vegas down the stretch, but the pending UFA is more than likely destined for retirement.

One player who likely deserves an extension but won’t get one is 30-year-old Laurent Brossoit, who played well above his pay grade in the playoffs before getting injured in the second round against Edmonton. That’s because Vegas still has early-season Calder candidate Logan Thompson waiting in the wings after missing the past few months with a lower-body injury, and veteran Robin Lehner (who missed the entire regular season and playoffs) could be ready to go next year as well.

With a 20-player roster, CapFriendly projects Vegas with under $3.5MM in cap space for 2023-24 including a healthy Lehner.

Minor Transactions: 6/7/23

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The transitional period between the postseason and the offseason continues, with the latter starting to heat up after a significant three-team deal yesterday. With the AHL’s playoffs all but wrapped up as well, transaction news will now flood in from both sides of the Atlantic Ocean as non-NHL leagues continue in their busiest signing periods of the year. As always, we’re keeping tabs on any and all notable transactions from outside the NHL right here.

  • 24-year-old defender Markus Phillips will spend next year in Hungary, signing with Fehérvár AV19 of the primarily Austrian ICEHL. Phillips, a former Los Angeles Kings (and briefly Winnipeg Jets) prospect, never did make it to the NHL after a promising draft year in 2016-17, when his 43 points and +41 rating in 63 OHL games earned him the 118th overall selection in that year’s draft. Since then, he struggled to find his footing professionally in the AHL and ECHL and spent the 2022-23 overseas with Finnish club Ässät.
  • The AHL’s Providence Bruins today signed forward Justin Brazeau to a one-year contract extension, per Mark Divver of the New England Hockey Journal. The massive 6-foot-5, 220-pound winger has developed into a top-flight AHL winger in the past two seasons with Toronto and Providence and recorded a career-high 45 points in 67 games last season. The former captain of the OHL’s North Bay Battalion will look to build on that total and hopefully earn an NHL deal as he enters his mid/late-20s.

This page will be updated throughout the day

Jake Virtanen Re-Signs In DEL

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Don’t expect former Vancouver Canucks forward Jake Virtanen to be back in the NHL anytime soon. Today, the 26-year-old signed a one-year contract to remain with the DEL’s Fischtown Penguins in 2023-24.

Virtanen, 26, recorded just two goals and two assists in 16 combined regular season and playoff games with Fischtown last year after a late-season transfer. He spent the majority of 2022-23 playing for Swiss side EHC Visp, a member of the country’s second-tier SL league.

Near the end of the 2020-21 season, Virtanen’s last in the NHL, the Canucks placed Virtanen on leave after court documents showing sexual assault allegations against him surfaced. Vancouver bought him out of the final season of his contract two months later.

Virtanen would continue his career overseas while his legal matters were pending, playing the 2021-22 campaign with the KHL’s Spartak Moscow. He was officially charged with sexual assault in January 2022 before a jury cleared him in late July.

A professional tryout with the Edmonton Oilers before the 2022-23 season proved unsuccessful. Given the winger’s inconsistent production overseas, that may have been his last time donning an NHL uniform.

Before getting bought out, Virtanen recorded just five goals (and no assists) in 38 games with Vancouver in 2020-21. He’ll try to help Fischtown, who finished eighth last season, avoid slipping to the bottom of the DEL and being relegated to the DEL2 for the first time since 2016.

Devils To Begin Contract Talks With Timo Meier This Week

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When the Devils picked up winger Timo Meier from San Jose prior to the trade deadline, GM Tom Fitzgerald noted that they didn’t want to get into extension talks right away, instead preferring him to get fully integrated with the team.  However, Fitzgerald told NHL.com’s Mike Zeisberger that those discussions will now begin this week.

Back in 2019, the 26-year-old signed a four-year, $24MM deal that was heavily backloaded.  Doing so gave the Sharks some cap flexibility while on the back end, it set up a $10MM qualifying offer.  That sparked some similar contracts being signed around the league and eventually, a change to the rules when the CBA was extended back in 2020 was made to eliminate the ballooning qualifying offer.  Now, instead of the qualifier being set at what the salary in the preceding season was, it’s the lower of that number or 120% of the AAV of the previous contract.

However, that rule change only applied to contracts signed after that stretch.  As a result, Meier is still subject to the old rule, meaning that New Jersey will have to tender him a $10MM qualifying offer later this month if they can’t agree on a new contract by then.

Meier notched a career-high 40 goals this season between the Sharks and Devils although he was a bit quieter than expected in the playoffs, scoring just twice in 11 contests.  He has yet to reach the point-per-game mark in his career but he came close to doing so back in 2021-22.  Accordingly, while Meier is an accomplished scorer, it’s fair to question if he’s worth a $10MM contract for next season.

The Devils do have one way to bring that amount down, although it comes with some risk.  If they opt for club-elected arbitration, they can come in with an offer that’s 85% of the required tender, or $8.5MM.  However, in return, Meier could simply go through the hearing, play for whatever is awarded, and then head straight to unrestricted free agency in 2024.  That’s certainly not the outcome Fitzgerald would want after moving a first-round pick and another recent first-rounder (Shakir Mukhamadullin) plus a conditional pick that could become a first as part of the return to get Meier.

With that in mind, it’s not surprising to see Fitzgerald planning to engage Meier’s agent Claude Lemieux in discussions now with the hopes of getting something done before the calendar flips to July and the qualifying offer comes into play.  That contract, if finalized, is likely to come in lower than the $10MM qualifier but not necessarily by much, especially with the expectation that the salary cap will start to go up quicker starting in 2024.

Fitzgerald made it clear to Zeisberger that his goal is getting the winger locked up on a long-term agreement; we’ll find out over the next few weeks if he’s able to succeed on that front.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

West Notes: Gavrikov, Predators, Bouchard

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Today’s cap-shedding trade by the Kings has sparked speculation that the move was made to make room for an agreement with defenseman Vladislav Gavrikov.  That deal isn’t in place and if it does get done, it might be a shorter-term deal than expected.  Pierre LeBrun of TSN and The Athletic reports (Twitter link) that Gavrikov’s camp has told Los Angeles that they’re looking for a two-year contract.  Considering that Gavrikov is 27 and in his prime, it feels like this is the right time to look for a long-term agreement.  However, the blueliner is coming off a bit of a quiet year and the salary cap is expected to start going up more after next season so Gavrikov could be positioning himself to have a shot at a bigger payday in a couple of years compared to what he could get this summer.

More from the Western Conference:

  • The Predators announced that they have reached an affiliation agreement with ECHL Atlanta for next season. It will be the fourth straight season that the Gladiators have a new affiliate after having Boston, Ottawa, and Arizona over the last three years.  Nashville, meanwhile, was one of four NHL teams this season that did not have a direct ECHL affiliation.
  • Gary Bettman’s recent confirmation that the Upper Limit of the salary cap is only set to go up by $1MM isn’t ideal for most teams but Kurt Leavins of the Edmonton Journal argues that it at least gives the Oilers some certainty as it pertains to defenseman Evan Bouchard. The 23-year-old is coming off his second straight season of at least 40 points and was quite productive in the playoffs, notching 17 points in 12 games; he still leads all playoff blueliners in scoring despite being ousted in the second round.  With Edmonton’s cap situation, they’re basically stuck doing a bridge contract with Bouchard, an outcome that’s basically cemented with the recent cap confirmation.

Offseason Checklist: Los Angeles Kings

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The offseason has arrived for all but the two teams that still have a shot at winning the Stanley Cup.  It’s time to examine what those eliminated squads will need to accomplish over the coming months.  Next up is a look at Los Angeles.

The Kings bolstered their offense with the acquisition of Kevin Fiala last summer and he helped improve their attack from the 20th-best team in 2021-22 to ninth in the league in scoring this season which also helped them surpass the 100-point mark for the first time since 2015-16.  However, they were once again by Edmonton in the first round.  Slow and steady improvement is rarely a bad way to go and their checklist for this summer is based on the idea of them staying on their current trajectory.

Kopitar Extension Talks

Anze Kopitar has been a fixture in the lineup for the Kings since 2006, a year after being the 11th overall pick.  He sits third in franchise history in points and should be able to move into second place about a month or so into the season.  The two-time Selke winner has one year left on his contract and accordingly, he is eligible for a contract extension as of July 1st.  Kopitar’s current deal carries a $10MM AAV, one that seemed a bit steep at the time but he has certainly lived up to it.  However, he’s also 35 and by the time his next contract starts in October 2024, he’ll be 37.

With the center depth that Los Angeles amassed in recent years – including top-five selections in Quinton Byfield and Alex Turcotte – it looked as if their plan was that they would be able to replace Kopitar by the time his deal was up.  That doesn’t seem likely to happen though; Byfield spent time on the wing this season while Turcotte has struggled in the minors at times and isn’t ready for NHL duty.  Phillip Danault was a nice addition in free agency in 2021 but he isn’t a prototypical top center either.

Accordingly, it seems likely that GM Rob Blake will look to sign his captain to an extension.  It’s almost certainly going to be a short-term deal (somewhere between two and four seasons) where the longer the term, the lower the AAV.  Kopitar won’t be eyeing a $10MM price tag again on that next agreement but he’s coming off a 74-point effort, his highest since 2017-18.  As a result, it wouldn’t be surprising to see an extension check in somewhere around the $7.5MM mark, allowing him to remain with the only NHL franchise he has ever known while keeping some stability down the middle while they hope for their prospects to eventually move into a more critical spot in the lineup.

Re-Sign The Columbus Rentals

At the trade deadline, the Kings did their shopping in one move, picking up goaltender Joonas Korpisalo and defenseman Vladislav Gavrikov from the Blue Jackets.  Both players are pending unrestricted free agents and with how they performed with their new team, the Kings would certainly like to keep them around.

Korpisalo signed a one-year deal with Columbus last summer coming off surgery in the hopes that he could show he was healthy and rebuild some value.  Mission accomplished on that front.  He did well with the Blue Jackets and then after the trade, the 29-year-old took over the starting role quickly with a 2.13 GAA and a .921 SV% in 11 starts.  Because of his more volatile track record, Korpisalo won’t be able to command top dollar on the free agent market which works in the Kings’ favor but he is still in line for a significant raise on the $1.4MM he made this season.  It shouldn’t need to get to Calvin Petersen-type money but getting Korpisalo signed should give them some upside at the goaltending position for next season.

As for Gavrikov, the 27-year-old took a step back from his 2021-22 performance with Columbus but found another gear following the trade, notching nine points in 20 games following the swap.  He’s a legitimate top-four defenseman in a UFA market that doesn’t have a lot of them.  While Gavrikov’s AAV over the last three seasons was $2.8MM, his salary this season was $4.2MM, a figure that’s likely to stand as a reasonable starting point for extension talks.  It’s worth noting that a report last month had the two sides making progress on a new deal although clearly, that hasn’t gotten across the finish line yet.

New Deal For Vilardi

Staying healthy was a challenge for forward Gabriel Vilardi early in his career with lingering back troubles being problematic.  Even this season, while his back wasn’t an issue, he had multiple injuries that caused him to miss 19 games in the regular season plus the first game of the Edmonton series.  However, when he was in the lineup, he made an impact.  After notching just 18 goals on his entry-level deal, the 23-year-old bested that total in 2022-23, picking up 23 goals and 18 assists in 63 games, giving them a pretty nice return on a one-year, $825K contract.

That deal is now up this summer and Vilardi will once again be a restricted free agent.  The big difference this time around is now he’ll be arbitration-eligible and obviously has a much better platform year to work from.  Given their desire to re-sign Korpisalo and Gavrikov, it’s reasonable to think another bridge contract will be coming Vilardi’s way if they’re able to ink those two.  A shorter-term agreement should see the AAV fall somewhere in the mid-$2.5MM range but if they work out a pact that buys some extra years of club control, it could creep closer to the $4MM mark.

Trade From Defensive Depth

There are going to be a lot of teams looking for defensive depth this summer.  That’s great news for Los Angeles as they project to have a blueliner available.  Assuming Gavrikov re-signs, that would give them a top-three of him, Drew Doughty, and Michael Anderson that are signed for multiple seasons.  Top prospect Brandt Clarke could be ready for full-time NHL duty as soon as next season.  That’s a nice top-four to work with.

Meanwhile, they have Matt Roy and Sean Durzi who will be entering the final year of their respective contracts next season.  They also have prospect Tobias Bjornfot who was shuffled to and from the AHL frequently this year but is now waiver-eligible.  Additionally, prospect Jordan Spence has lit it up with AHL Ontario the last two seasons and is probably ready for a long look with the big club as well.  Kevin Connauton and Jacob Moverare are pegged to be in the minors but also have NHL experience.  All things considered, their depth is pretty strong.

There’s nothing wrong with having extra depth but there’s a case to be made to move one of them even after trading Sean Walker earlier today.  Durzi’s just 24 with three years of club control remaining and should bring back a nice return and a bit more cap room (he has a $1.7MM AAV) while making room for one of Spence or Clarke.  They could try to move Spence and cash in on his rising value.  There’s still room to move one more defender and with demand for blueliners being high, that should work in Blake’s favor should he opt to make another move.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Islanders Notes: Bailey, Coaching Staff, Free Agents, Injury Updates

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Islanders GM Lou Lamoriello met with the media today (video link) and provided updates on several things while also confirming that he is under contract, though he declined to state for how long.  Here are some of the updates from his presser.

  • Speaking about veteran winger Josh Bailey, Lamoriello indicated that “In Josh’s case, it looks like, maybe it’s near the end here.” The 33-year-old had a rough showing this season, notching just eight goals and 17 assists in 64 games, resulting in him being a healthy scratch at times.  Bailey still has one year left on his contract with a $5MM AAV, one that would require New York to provide an incentive for another team to take on.  A buyout, meanwhile, would save around $2.33MM on the cap for next season while adding $1.167MM in dead space for 2024-25.
  • Lamoriello also confirmed that head coach Lane Lambert would be back for his second season behind the bench. The team was eliminated in the first round by Carolina and didn’t take as big of a step forward offensively as expected; the team scored just 12 more goals than they did under the defensive-minded Barry Trotz.  However, Lamoriello wouldn’t confirm that the full coaching staff would be back for next year, stating “that’s not something that I can assert to at this point”.  John MacLean and Doug Houda were the lead assistants this season for the Isles.
  • Lamoriello indicated that he’d like to re-sign pending UFA defenseman Scott Mayfield, goaltender Semyon Varlamov, and forward Pierre Engvall. Mayfield has become a steady top-four blueliner and should more than double the $1.45MM AAV from his expiring deal.  Varlamov played in just 23 games this season, his fewest games played total since getting a brief stint in his rookie year in 2008-09.  He’s coming off a $5MM contract and will be facing a likely cut in pay, especially if he wants to remain in New York.  Engvall, meanwhile, came over at the trade deadline from Toronto and picked up nine points in 18 games following the swap.  He’s coming off a $2.25MM contract and should be in line for more than that on the open market.  With the Islanders having a little over $5MM in cap space per CapFriendly, they have some work to do if they want to bring those three back.
  • As for Zach Parise, another pending UFA, Lamoriello mentioned he’d also like to bring him back but the veteran first needs to decide if he’s going to play again next season. The 38-year-old had a productive year with 21 goals but after 18 NHL seasons, it’s certainly possible that he decides to call it a career.
  • Lamoriello also noted that winger Oliver Wahlstrom has resumed skating as he works his way back from an ACL injury back in late December. He, along with Alexander Romanov (shoulder surgery), are both set to be ready in time for training camp.

Colorado Avalanche Extend Wyatt Aamodt

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The Colorado Avalanche have announced that defenseman Wyatt Aamodt has been signed to a one-year contract extension. The financial terms of the deal were not disclosed in the team announcement.

Aamodt was set to become an arbitration-eligible restricted free agent as his one-year entry-level contract was about to expire. Now, with this extension, he’ll avoid any lengthy offseason negotiations and secure his spot in the Avalanche’s plans for next season.

Aamodt will turn 26 early next season and is entering his second full season as a professional hockey player. He’s an undrafted player who spent four seasons with Minnesota State University, playing on some highly successful teams and earning the right to captain the squad in his senior season.

There isn’t a ton of offense in Aamodt’s game, but the five-foot-eleven left-shot blueliner capably handled a regular role on the AHL’s Colorado Eagles’ defense. His strong two-way game kept him in the Eagles’ lineup and earned the trust of head coach Greg Cronin, who recently took the job as the head coach of the Anaheim Ducks.

Late in the season, Aamodt was partnered with rookie NCAA signing Sam Malinski and Aamodt’s steady, reliable play helped Malinski make an instant offensive impact in the AHL, as he scored 10 points in his first 14 games as a professional.

This one-year extension is Aamodt’s reward for a quality campaign in the AHL, and next season he’ll be relied upon once again as a regular in the Eagles lineup, and Aamodt will likely hope to take a step forward in his play and make a push to potentially earn an NHL call-up.

Columbus Blue Jackets Acquire Ivan Provorov As Part Of Three-Team Trade

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With Mike Babcock expected to be named Columbus Blue Jackets head coach later this summer, the Blue Jackets have made a major push to improve their roster for his first season as head coach.

In a trade officially announced by all three involved teams, Columbus is acquiring defenseman Ivan Provorov from the Philadelphia Flyers, but there are a lot of moving parts to the deal. Here are the full details as told by the team announcement:

Philadelphia trades Ivan Provorov and Hayden Hodgson to Los Angeles in exchange for Calvin Petersen, Sean Walker, Helge Grans and the Kings’ 2024 second-round pick. Columbus acquires Kevin Connauton from Philadelphia in exchange for a 2023 first-round pick (22nd overall) and conditional second-round pick in either the 2024 or 2025 NHL Draft. Columbus acquires Provorov from Los Angeles in exchange for Connauton.

The Kings are retaining 30% of Provorov’s deal, meaning he’ll cost $4.725MM against the cap for Columbus for the next two seasons.

Laid out plainly, here is what each team is acquiring as part of this deal:

Columbus gets: Provorov. Philadelphia gets: Petersen, Grans, Walker, 2023 1st (via CBJ via LA), 2024 2nd (via LA), conditional 2nd (via CBJ). Los Angeles gets: Hodgson, Connauton.

Columbus’ acquisition of Provorov should not come as a surprise, as it was reported months ago that the team had an interest in acquiring a defensive upgrade to fill the void left by their trade of Vladislav Gavrikov to Los Angeles. Blue Jackets GM Jarmo Kekalainen has found his upgrade in Provorov, 26.

Provorov was the seventh-overall pick at that 2015 draft and at times looked to be a potential top-of-the-lineup, all-situations force for Philadelphia. He averages over 24 minutes per night for his career, and has a career-high of 17 goals and 41 points.

But in recent seasons, as the Flyers themselves have descended from consistent playoff team to league basement-dweller, Provorov’s form has declined and this season he played a full minute less per game than his career average, earning 23:01 time on ice per contest.

As Provorov’s inconsistency became harder and harder to ignore and the Flyers organization began to pivot to more of a rebuild-like direction, it became clear that a change of scenery would likely be in the best interest of all parties.

Now Provorov gets his change of scenery with two seasons remaining on his contract. He’ll land in Columbus, where he’ll be slotted more appropriately as the team’s number-two left-shot defenseman behind franchise face Zach Werenski.

Assuming Werenski can return to form next season after an injury cost him most of his 2022-23, Provorov will be in a more comfortable position as a second-pairing anchor. It’s likely that the Blue Jackets believe he’ll be able to reach the heights he hit earlier in his career in that position sort of position, when he’s not being leaned on as his coach’s number-one option.

For the Kings, the motivations behind this deal seem relatively clear. First and foremost, creating cap space was an important priority, and is something the Kings have done by sending Petersen and his $5MM AAV deal to the Flyers.

Petersen once looked like a potential successor to Jonathan Quick for the Kings, posting a solid .911 save percentage in 35 games in 2020-21. Since that point, though, Petersen has declined sharply and this season spent most of the year in the AHL as he had a grisly .868 save percentage in his 10 NHL games. Now Petersen will get a fresh start in Philadelphia while the Kings clear his hefty cap hit off their books, save for any money they retain. (which will be revealed when the official trade details come in)

Cap space is of importance to the Kings as they are looking to sign an extension with Gavrikov, their mid-season trade acquisition. ESPN’s John Buccigross on Twitter cited a conversation with a Kings executive who pegged the cost of Gavrikov’s contract extension to be in the “$6-7 million” range, with the team preferring to keep the number as early in the $6MM range as possible. If the Kings do end up finalizing that sort of contract extension with the 27-year-old Russian rearguard, this trade of Petersen is an essential one.

ESPN’s Kevin Weekes reports that Gavrikov is “only interested in a two-year contract extension with the Kings,” which could contribute to the higher price tag Buccigross is reporting, as the conventional wisdom is that short-term contracts for coveted players who are in their prime would carry higher average annual values than the more traditional long-term commitments.

Meanwhile, the trade of Walker (reportedly to Philadelphia) is no surprise seeing as the Kings have been long expected to deal from their surplus of right-shot NHL-ready blueliners. With Sean Durzi a breakout talent and 22-year-old Jordan Spence clearly ready to take on the challenge of the NHL, it seems Walker was the odd man out in the team’s right-shot defensive picture.

Walker is a 28-year-old undrafted Bowling Green State University product who is making $2.65MM against the cap for one more season. He scored 13 points in 70 games this season and contributed to the team’s penalty kill, but his average ice time was cut from 18:22 per game last year to just 14:50 this season.

Perhaps he’ll be able to earn a larger role in Philadelphia, or the Flyers could even opt to flip him to another team to earn even more draft capital to further their rebuild process.

They’ll also get Connauton, a 33-year-old defender with 360 games of NHL experience on a $762.5k cap hit for next season. He scored 15 points in 63 games in 2022-23 for the Lehigh Valley Phantoms of the AHL, and it was his first season since 2013 spent without a single NHL game played. He’ll likely play with the Ontario Reign in the AHL and add to the Kings’ defensive depth.

Hodgson, 27, has just seven games of NHL experience but scored 19 goals and 31 points in 46 AHL games in 2021-22. His point total dropped to eight this past year, but perhaps the physical forward can return to AHL prominence in Ontario.

For Philadelphia, this deal is all about adding as much draft and prospect capital to further their rebuild under new GM Daniel Briere. Getting a first-rounder in a highly-regarded draft is a solid return for Provorov, and the additional two second-rounders are a great bonus. Grans has had an uneven time in the AHL with the Kings organization, but he’s still just 21 years old and was the 35th overall pick at the 2020 draft. He’s a talented prospect who could quickly put himself in the Flyers’ blueline mix.

This trade is Briere’s first move in what is likely to be a summer of major change for the Flyers. If they are indeed pursuing a complete rebuilding process, (perhaps including a trade of netminder Carter Hart, who has been the subject of “industry rumblings” about a potential trade) this is a strong first transaction to get that rebuild started.

Photos courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman first reported the deal taking place. ESPN’s Kevin Weekes, The Athletic’s Aaron Portzline, Sportsnet’s Jeff Marek, and ESPN’s Greg Wyshynski each first reported other elements of the deal.  

Dallas Stars Extend Fredrik Karlström

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The Dallas Stars have announced a one-year, two-way contract extension for pending Group Six unrestricted free agent forward Fredrik Karlström. The financial terms of the deal were not included as part of Dallas’ announcement, but have been reported by PuckPedia. Karlström’s deal will carry a league-minimum $775k AAV as well as a $225k AHL salary and a $250k total guarantee.

Karlström, 25, was a third-round pick of the Stars back at the 2015 draft who has been a depth forward in Dallas for the past two seasons.

He took an extended development path to reach his current role, spending four full seasons in the SHL with Linkoping HC and Vaxjo Lakers. Karlström signed a two-year entry-level deal with Dallas in the summer of 2020 and was loaned back to Vaxjo for the following campaign, where he won a championship and scored a combined 35 points in 65 regular season and playoff SHL games.

After that year he decided to try his luck in North America and spent most of his 2021-22 season with the AHL’s Texas Stars. He registered a respectable 16 goals and 29 points in 65 games, helping his team reach the AHL’s playoffs. He also earned the right to make his NHL debut in an April 21st, 2022 contest against the Calgary Flames, a game where he also scored his first NHL point.

This season was more of the same for Karlström, as he was a consistent, versatile middle-six forward in the AHL while managing to competently handle fill-in duty in the NHL when Dallas was hit with the injury bug. He managed to dress in five NHL games in 2022-23, and he played well enough to earn this one-year extension that will allow him to occupy a similar role next season.

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