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St. Louis Blues Sign Colten Ellis To Two-Year Extension

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The St. Louis Blues are retaining some of their organizational goaltending depth beyond this season. St. Louis announced they’ve extended netminder Colten Ellis to a two-year, two-way contract through the 2026-27 NHL season.

Ellis became property of the Blues when the organization selected him with the 93rd overall pick of the 2019 NHL Draft. The 24-year-old netminder was coming off an impressive season with the QMJHL’s Rimouski Océanic, managing a 27-15-2 record through 46 games with a .910 SV% and 2.47 GAA. Unfortunately, the Océanic couldn’t excel beyond the QMJHL playoff semifinals despite Ellis’s strong playoff performance.

The River Denys, Nova Scotia native spent a few more years in the QMJHL with the Océanic and Charlottetown Islanders before joining the professional ranks for the 2021-22 season. Until the current campaign, Ellis had frequently bounced around the AHL and ECHL. Due to his play with the AHL’s Springfield Thunderbirds this season, it is unlikely that Ellis will play in the ECHL anytime soon.

He’s expected to finish his ECHL career with a 39-27-11 record in 82 games with a .904 SV% and 3.10 GAA split between the Worcester Railers, Tulsa Oilers, and Orlando Solar Bears. Not only has Ellis become the top netminder for the Thunderbirds this year, but he’s also becoming one of the best in the AHL. He’s managed a 19-7-5 record through 31 games and is second in the league with a .926 SV%. Barring a monumental collapse in their 18 remaining contests, Ellis should make his postseason debut in the AHL with the Thunderbirds ranked in the top six of the Atlantic Division.

Golden Knights Acquire Reilly Smith From Rangers

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2:23 p.m.: The Knights and Rangers have made the trade official as reported.

12:58 p.m.: The Golden Knights are acquiring winger Reilly Smith from the Rangers in exchange for the Sharks’ 2025 third-round pick and forward prospect Brendan Brisson, Larry Brooks of the New York Post reports. Vegas doesn’t have the space to accommodate Smith’s already-reduced $3.75MM cap hit, so New York is retaining 50% of his salary, according to Frank Seravalli of Daily Faceoff. The Golden Knights have an open roster spot and won’t need to make a corresponding transaction.

It’s a reunion for Smith and Vegas, where he was a top-six fixture from the Knights’ inception through their run to the 2023 Stanley Cup championship. Cap constraints following the championship run influenced Vegas to deal Smith, who turns 34 next month, to the Penguins for a third-round pick. His tenure in Pittsburgh was underwhelming, limited to 13-27–40 in 76 games – halving his goal production from his final season with the Knights despite seeing consistent second-line deployment with the Pens alongside Evgeni Malkin.

Multiple reports indicated Smith wasn’t pleased with the move, which he couldn’t block with only a 12-team no-trade list. In addition to coming off a championship and playing a formative role in Vegas’ development as a franchise, he’d signed a three-year, $15MM extension with Vegas the prior offseason. The Penguins, content to find someone else to replace Smith’s minutes, flipped him to the Rangers last summer for a second- and fifth-round pick while retaining 25% of his salary.

Smith’s production didn’t rebound at all in the Big Apple. He’s scoring goals at the exact rate per game, and his point-per-game pace has dropped from 0.53 with the Pens to 0.50 with the Blueshirts. The veteran has 10-19–29 through 58 games and is on pace to register his fewest shots on goal in a season since his rookie year with the Stars in 2012-13.

During his first six-year tenure in Vegas, Smith averaged 26 goals and 59 points per 82 games. It’s unlikely he captures quite that much production on a per-game basis down the stretch given his recent decline, but he adds a familiar name to a bit of a hodgepodge group of wingers in Nevada. The team turned to the bargain bin on the free agent market last summer after losing Conn Smythe winner Jonathan Marchessault, center Chandler Stephenson, and serviceable depth scorer Michael Amadio to free agency, picking up names like Victor Olofsson and Tanner Pearson on the cheap. They also inked veteran Brandon Saad mid-season after he mutually terminated his contract with the Blues.

They’ve gotten solid showings out of Olofsson and Pearson. They are enjoying a 24-goal breakout campaign from Pavel Dorofeyev, but depth on the wings remained the Golden Knights’ most enormous hole on paper heading into the trade deadline. They’ll address it here instead of a more significant, complex acquisition like star Mikko Rantanen, who they were linked to this morning. That aligns with what general manager Kelly McCrimmon predicted for his club earlier this week.

Dealing Smith continues the Rangers’ unloading of pending UFAs for futures ahead of the deadline, but that will mark the extent of their selling as they remain in the Eastern Conference wild card race. They also shipped out defenseman Ryan Lindgren and winger Jimmy Vesey to the Avalanche over the weekend.

The most intriguing part of their return lies in Brisson, whom Vegas selected 29th overall in the 2020 draft. The 23-year-old winger was expected to compete for a roster spot out of camp this season amid the Knights’ aforementioned turnover. While he landed the gig, he had no points in nine games before being sent to AHL Henderson. His minor-league performance this season has been nothing short of disastrous, limited to 5-14–19 in 45 games with a team-worst -24 rating. His trade value was slashed as a result.

New York hopes Brisson can rebound to his 2023-24 form with their affiliate in Hartford. He looked promising with 38 points in 52 AHL games last year and even tallied a respectable 2-6–8 scoring line in 15 games of NHL action, the first of his career. With the move, the Golden Knights have now traded all of their first-round selections in franchise history outside of last year’s pickup, Trevor Connelly.

Smith’s absence will also continue an expanded youth movement in New York, which really started when the Rangers began scratching Smith for trade protection a few days ago. There’s more guaranteed ice time for names like Brett Berard and Brennan Othmann, and potentially even Brisson depending on his first impression in the AHL, down the stretch.

As for Vegas, they now have just roughly $500K in cap space, per PuckPedia. Unless they determine William Karlsson’s or Shea Theodore’s injuries will hold them out for the rest of the regular season, there’s no LTIR flexibility for them to dip into.

Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.

Blue Jackets Claim Christian Fischer From Red Wings

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2:19 p.m.: Columbus announced they’ve reassigned Pyyhtia as the corresponding move. He has 4-3–7 in 47 games with the Jackets this year with a -11 rating.

1:08 p.m.: The Blue Jackets have claimed winger Christian Fischer off waivers from the Red Wings, per Chris Johnston of TSN and The Athletic.

Given that the Blue Jackets didn’t have any additional room on their roster for another player, the team will have to make a corresponding roster move to make Fischer’s claim official. The inevitable roster move will presumably see forward Joseph Labate or Mikael Pyyhtia reassigned to their AHL affiliate, the Cleveland Monsters.

Today’s claim ends a nearly two-year run for Fischer in Detroit. The former 32nd-overall pick of the 2015 NHL Draft signed with the Red Wings in the summer of 2023 after being non-tendered by the Arizona Coyotes.

Before signing with the second team of his nine-year career, Fischer had shown flashes of being an effective bottom-six scorer. The Chicago, IL native scored 56 goals and 111 points in 398 games in a Coyotes uniform, averaging 13:16 of ice time per game. That scoring output includes a career-year during his sophomore campaign in 2017-18, registering 15 goals and 33 points in 79 contests, finishing seventh on the team in scoring.

Similarly to the end of his tenure in Arizona, Fischer has been primarily utilized as a defensive winger in Detroit. He’ll finish his time with the Red Wings with six goals and 26 points in 124 games while also laying 227 body checks.

Fischer should be a better player than Columbus’s other options on the team’s fourth line, but they shouldn’t have any ideas about putting Fischer on the team’s penalty kill. The Blue Jackets could use help in that department, given their 26th-ranked success rate with a man disadvantage. However, Fischer had sometimes featured on Detroit’s league-worst penalty kill, with a ghastly on-ice goals against/60 while short handed of 15.4.

Blues’ Colton Parayko Out Six Weeks After Knee Operation

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In a massive blow to their defensive core, the St. Louis Blues announced Colton Parayko will miss the next six weeks after undergoing a scope on his left knee. Given that six weeks from today is two days after the Blues’ final regular season matchup, it likely means Parayko is done for the regular season.

The knee procedure was required after the team’s shootout win against the Los Angeles Kings last night. During the overtime period, Parayko fell awkwardly after an offensive zone faceoff, leading to his removal from the game for the remainder of the action.

It’s an unfortunate end to what was becoming a career year for the St. Albert, Alberta native. Parayko was, and still is, leading all Blues defensemen in goals, assists, points, even-strength goals, shots on goal, average time on ice, blocked shots, hits, and takeaways. He had already matched his career-high of 35 points in 18 fewer games.

Still, it wasn’t a completely perfect season for Parayko. Although his possession metrics have improved from last year, he’s still averaging a 47.1% CorsiFor% at even strength, slightly below his career average of 48.3%. Meanwhile, his defensive metrics have taken a hit, as evidenced by his career low 89.8% on-ice save percentage at even strength, but much of that can be explained by his 59.0% defensive zone starts percentage.

Regardless of the moderately depressed defensive metrics, it’s hard to define Parayko’s 2024-25 campaign as anything short of an impressive rebound. He’s raised his On-Ice Goals % at even strength from 40.7% in 2022-23 and 46.2% in 2023-24 to a solid 53.2% in 2024-25, notably driving the Blues’ offense.

After appearing as a net loss contract a few years ago, Parayko’s $6.5MM salary through the 2029-30 season is becoming more of an ideal contract for St. Louis. Parayko had been floated as a potential trade candidate leading into Friday’s deadline, but interested teams will likely revisit in the offseason once he’s recovered from the knee injury.

Panthers, Jets Swap Chris Driedger, Kaapo Kähkönen

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The Panthers and Jets have swapped third-string goaltenders. Both teams announced Chris Driedger is heading from Florida to Winnipeg after being assigned to the AHL earlier today, while Kaapo Kähkönen is heading south to the Cats. Neither player was on their team’s active roster.

It’s an act of goodwill on both teams’ behalf, trading underperforming veterans in hopes of fresh starts in more familiar environments. Driedger heads back to his hometown in the deal, while the Finnish Kähkönen gets to serve as the No. 3 for the league’s most Finn-heavy team.

Driedger was briefly a bona fide backup option with Florida around the turn of the decade, erupting for a .931 SV% and 2.07 GAA in 35 games during the 2019-20 and 2020-21 seasons. That got him claimed by the Kraken in the 2021 expansion draft and subsequently signed to a three-year, $10.5MM deal, although injuries and poor play derailed his tenure in Seattle from the start. He’s only logged two NHL appearances in the last three years, both coming last season in Seattle.

He hoped to get his career back on track last summer by returning to Florida on a cheap $795K contract, but he lost the training camp battle to be Sergei Bobrovsky’s backup to youngster Spencer Knight. While he’d been a strong minor-league option for the Kraken when healthy, the same can’t be said for his performance with the Panthers’ AHL affiliate in Charlotte this year. The 30-year-old has struggled to the tune of a .878 SV% and 2.97 GAA in 20 outings for the farm club. When Florida traded Knight to the Blackhawks last weekend in the Seth Jones deal, they moved to acquire Vítek Vaněček from the Sharks to serve as their backup down the stretch instead of giving Driedger a long-term promotion.

Driedger and Kähkönen will now replace each other as veteran options for Charlotte and Manitoba down the stretch. Kähkönen has been an NHL fixture for a few years but, like Driedger, lost a training camp battle for a backup spot after signing a one-year, $1MM deal in Winnipeg. After being passed over for Eric Comrie, he landed on waivers and was claimed by the Avalanche. He lasted about a month in Colorado before landing on the waiver wire again, upon which the Jets re-claimed him and sent him directly to the minors.

Despite posting a pedestrian but respectable .898 SV% in 140 career NHL games, Kähkönen’s underperformed that mark in Manitoba. He’s got just a .885 SV% and 3.29 GAA in 22 games with the AHL’s Moose, yielding a poor 6-14-1 record as a result. He may get a chance to backup Bobrovsky down the stretch if Vaněček underwhelms, but for now, he’ll bide his time in Charlotte.

Coincidentally, Vaněček and Kähkönen now end up in the same organization after being traded for each other at last year’s deadline in a deal between the Devils and Sharks.

Frank Seravalli of Daily Faceoff was first to report the deal.

Predators Claim Jakub Vrána, Jordan Oesterle

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The Predators have claimed winger Jakub Vrána off waivers from the Capitals and defenseman Jordan Oesterle off waivers from the Bruins, per Chris Johnston of TSN and The Athletic.

Nashville needed some depth after trading winger Gustav Nyquist to the Minnesota Wild a few days ago and moving Thomas Novak and Luke Schenn to the Pittsburgh Penguins yesterday evening. Newly acquired Michael Bunting will become a regular feature in the lineup upon his recovery from appendix-removal surgery, but Vrana and Oesterle will fill in in the meantime.

After a few subpar years with the Detroit Red Wings and St. Louis Blues, Vrána successfully converted a PTO into a one-year, league minimum deal with the Washington Capitals. It was a feel-good story at the time, given that the best years of Vrána’s career had come in the Capitals organization. Before being acquired by Detroit at the 2020-21 trade deadline, Vrána had scored 76 goals and 157 points in 284 games, including a Stanley Cup ring from the 2018 postseason.

Thanks to a relatively healthy forward core this season, the Capitals haven’t utilized Vrána much. The nine-year veteran has been limited to 26 games this season in Washington, scoring four goals and 11 points while averaging 9:50 of ice time per night. There’s no guarantee he’ll have more access to playing time in Nashville, but he could make a decent fit on the team’s fourth line.

Meanwhile, Oesterle joins the seventh organization of his career from the waiver claim. The product of Western Michigan University had recently signed a two-year, $1.55MM agreement with Boston last summer. Similarly to Vrána, Oesterle had been a lightly called upon depth option on the Bruins’ blue line.

He’s likely to find a similar role in Nashville. Oesterle doesn’t appear better on paper than any of the Predators’ other options unless the team has not finished dealing from their defensive core. The 11-year veteran has registered one goal and six points in 22 games for the Bruins this season, averaging 17:36 of ice time. The pair of Nashville’s waiver claims were briefly teammates throughout their time with the Red Wings from 2021 to 2023.

Panthers Acquire Nico Sturm From Sharks

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The Panthers have acquired center Nico Sturm and a 2027 seventh-round pick from the Sharks, per announcements from both clubs. Florida had a pair of open roster spots after reassigning goaltender Chris Driedger this morning. The Sharks receive Florida’s 2026 fourth-round pick in return.

Sturm, 29, was an undrafted free agent signing by the Wild out of Clarkson University in 2019 and has since emerged as a reliable bottom-six forward. He played at the tail end of that season but spent most of 2019-20 with AHL Iowa before emerging as a full-time piece in Minnesota’s lineup during the COVID-shortened 2020-21 campaign. He ended up posting 20-16–36 in 111 games for the Wild, averaging 11:16 per game, before they traded him to the Avalanche ahead of the 2022 deadline for former top-10 pick Tyson Jost.

He wasn’t a fixture in Colorado’s playoff lineup that year after he was limited to three assists in 21 games down the stretch. He did, however, add a pair of assists in 13 playoff contests as he got a Stanley Cup ring. An unrestricted free agent that summer, the Avs opted not to re-sign him and he instead inked a three-year, $6MM contract with the Sharks.

The beginning of his tenure with the Sharks was great. He stepped into a top-nine role on an understaffed San Jose forward group, averaging 14:44 per game and posting a career-high 14-12–26 scoring line in 74 games. His -13 rating was respectable considering the Sharks had players in the -30 territory that year, and he was their top faceoff man with a 55.8% win rate.

Sturm hasn’t been quite as effective since then, but he remains a serviceable fourth-line piece who’s been absolutely elite in the dot. Here in 2024-25, his 62.7 FOW% leads players with at least 100 draws taken. Offensively, he’s posted 7-6–13 in 47 games for the Sharks between injuries while averaging a reduced 10:08 per game. He’s factored in less at both even strength and the penalty kill than earlier in his San Jose tenure, but he’s still reliable shorthanded and has posted a decent 46.1% shot-attempt share at even strength on a Sharks team that controls only 46.2% overall.

A pending UFA, San Jose will recoup a mid-round pick for his services while Florida gets an upgrade over what Tomáš Nosek has brought as their 4C this year. Nosek has just one goal in 50 games, and while fine in the dot at 51.4%, Sturm is a better option with better relative possession impacts. It won’t be surprising to see Nosek, who signed a league-minimum deal with Florida last offseason, shift to the wing down the stretch or head to the press box entirely with Sturm taking over his previous duties.

Utah To Sign Cameron Hebig To Two-Way Deal

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Utah HC is signing depth forward Cameron Hebig to a two-way deal for the remainder of the campaign, PuckPedia reports. He’ll earn pro-rated salaries of $775K in the NHL and $125K in the minors. Hebig will likely land on waivers at 1 p.m. CT, allowing Utah to reassign him to AHL Tucson on deadline day to make him eligible for the Calder Cup Playoffs.

The 28-year-old Hebig is a seasoned pro, skating in parts of seven AHL seasons. He was initially an undrafted free agent signed by the Oilers in 2017, but he wasn’t tendered a qualifying offer upon expiry in 2020. He’s been solely on minor-league deals since then.

The vast majority of that time has been spent in Tucson, now Utah’s affiliate after serving as the Coyotes’ top developmental club for the rest of their history. The Saskatoon native first appeared for the Roadrunners during the 2020-21 campaign and has exclusively suited up there over the last four seasons. While usually a decent middle-six producer, Hebig’s broken out this season for 20-17–37 in 48 games. He’s tied for the team lead in goals, ranks third in overall scoring, and ranks third with a +10 rating. That’s enough for the 5’10” forward, who can line up at center or either wing, to earn his first NHL contract in five years.

Hebig will be returning to Tucson for now, but the NHL deal makes him a recall option down the stretch if injuries strike. He can also be added to Utah’s playoff roster as a black ace if they make the postseason. That’s certainly a possibility, sitting four points back of the Flames for the last wild card spot in the West. He’ll be an unrestricted free agent this summer without an extension.

Devils Acquire Brian Dumoulin From Ducks

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11:48 a.m.: Both clubs have announced the trade as reported.

10:48 a.m.: The Devils have acquired defenseman Brian Dumoulin from the Ducks, Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet reports. Anaheim receives the better of the Oilers’ or Jets’ 2025 second-round pick and the signing rights to winger Herman Träff in return, per Pierre LeBrun of TSN and The Athletic and Frank Seravalli of Daily Faceoff. LeBrun adds the Ducks also retain 50% of Dumoulin’s $3.15MM cap hit. New Jersey had an open roster spot after placing Jack Hughes on long-term injured reserve yesterday following his season-ending shoulder surgery, so no corresponding move will be necessary.

As expected, the third-place Devils aren’t punting on their season following Hughes’ injury. They have a lot of work to do to hold onto their Metropolitan Division berth with defenseman Jonas Siegenthaler joining Hughes on LTIR and leading defense point-getter Dougie Hamilton out week-to-week, though. Dumoulin, coming in at an affordable $1.575MM price tag and on an expiring contract, is a short-term replacement down the stretch for the former. Meanwhile, Anaheim will finish the season with their three lefty rearguards under 25 – Jackson LaCombe, Pavel Mintyukov, and Olen Zellweger.

Dumoulin, 33, has played all 61 games with the Ducks and turned in a very solid 2-14–16 scoring line with a plus-two rating while averaging nearly 20 minutes per game, although his possession numbers aren’t as encouraging. The stay-at-home defender’s 43.4 even-strength CF% is well below Anaheim’s 46.6% share without him on the ice, although he is starting a career-high 57.9% of his zone starts in the defensive end. His -12.9 expected rating is worst on the Ducks, though, and his 42.2 xGF% is his career’s worst possession quality control figure. Some positive regression on those numbers down the stretch is likely in a much more competent possession system in New Jersey.

Even with this year’s struggles, Dumoulin has a lengthy history of being a strong complementary top-four piece, spending most of his career in Pittsburgh alongside Kris Letang. He’s had above-average possession impacts as recently as last year with the Kraken, who signed him to his current two-year, $6.3MM contract in the 2023 offseason. He was a tad too expensive for their liking after loading up their blue line with Brandon Montour last summer, though, prompting them to trade him to Anaheim for a 2026 fourth-round pick. That’s a good bit of business for Ducks general manager Pat Verbeek, who upgrades that pick by two rounds and lands an additional prospect while getting 60-plus games out of Dumoulin.

New Jersey’s blue line wasn’t viewed as a priority area at the deadline a few weeks ago, but injuries to Hamilton and Siegenthaler evidently changed that. The latter was only expected to miss two to three weeks after undergoing a procedure over the 4 Nations break, but he’s already missed two and a half and hasn’t returned to practice.

Dumoulin will likely step into a bottom-pairing spot on the left side behind Brenden Dillon and Luke Hughes in the interim, likely pushing youngster Seamus Casey back down to AHL Utica when Siegenthaler is ready to return. Whether Dumoulin remains in the regular lineup at that point remains to be seen. Siegenthaler has produced less individual offense this year when healthy with nine points in 55 games but has better relative possession impacts in more difficult minutes. That would presumably push Dumoulin to the press box short of someone shifting to their off side, making a second-rounder and a C-tier prospect a steep price to pay.

Träff, 19, was selected by New Jersey in the third round of last year’s draft. Scott Wheeler of The Athletic tabbed him as the No. 6 prospect in the Devils’ system in his 2025 rankings, but they acquired another big winger with a similar projection by picking up Shane Lachance from the Oilers in this week’s Trent Frederic three-team deal. That softens the blow of losing Träff, who’s posted a respectable 3-4–7 scoring line in 25 games with HV71 of the Swedish Hockey League as a teenager this year. The 6’3″, 216-lb winger will be buried a bit more in a deeper Ducks system but still has legitimate NHL upside.

He’ll remain with HV71 to close out the season. The Ducks will retain Träff’s signing rights through June 1, 2028. Notably, they’re down to one available retention slot after today’s move.

Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.

Predators Recall Ozzy Wiesblatt

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The Predators have recalled winger Ozzy Wiesblatt from AHL Milwaukee, Nick Kieser of 102.5 The Game reports. No corresponding transaction is necessary since Nashville opened a roster spot in last night’s trade with the Penguins.

Wiesblatt, 22, earns his third recall of the season after a torrid stretch of play in the minors. The Sharks 2020 first-rounder has 2-5–7 in his last five games with Milwaukee and is now up to 14-18–32 in 51 games on the year.

The feisty 5’10” winger has seen his game take off in the Preds organization after they acquired him from San Jose last offseason in exchange for the signing rights to Egor Afanasyev. His development had stalled in the Sharks’ farm system, where he posted just 11-18–29 in 85 games with the Barracuda across three seasons. He’s now outperformed that total production in just months with Milwaukee.

That explosion has led to a pair of previous recalls this year, yielding his NHL debut. He’s yet to record a point in three appearances but has a plus-one rating while averaging 11:10 per game. He’s recorded a shot on goal and five hits, but the Preds have been shelled 45-16 in shot attempts in his even-strength minutes. Nonetheless, he’ll get another shot in the lineup tonight against Seattle with Thomas Novak dealt to Pittsburgh and pickup Michael Bunting still recovering from an appendectomy.

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