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Carter Hart Expected To Receive Interest From Multiple Teams

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Earlier this week, the NHL announced that the five Hockey Canada players who were found not guilty of sexual assault earlier this summer would be suspended to December 1st but would be eligible to sign an NHL contract as of October 15th.  It appears that goaltender Carter Hart will get an opportunity to continue his career; Chris Johnston reports in his latest piece for The Athletic (subscription link) that Hart is expected to receive interest from multiple teams and should have a handshake deal in place by the start of next month.

Hart last played near the midway point of the 2023-24 season before taking a leave from the team when charges were about to be laid.  Then, when his contract expired, the Flyers didn’t issue a qualifying offer, making him an unrestricted free agent.

The 27-year-old has played in 227 career NHL contests, all with the Flyers who drafted him in the second round back in 2016.  Hart started off quite strong with Philadelphia before his performance started to dip, coinciding with their struggles in the standings.  Overall, he has a 2.94 GAA along with a .906 SV% and six shutouts over his six-season career.

While there has been some speculation that the Flyers could look to bring him back, Johnston suggests that’s unlikely to be the case as Hart is believed to be looking for a fresh start.  Meanwhile, Philadelphia already has Samuel Ersson and newcomer Daniel Vladar in the fold while prospect Aleksei Kolosov will also be in camp with the team, as will Ivan Fedotov who looks like a waiver candidate as things stand.

Johnston added that Hart is almost certainly going to sign with a U.S.-based team which would take the long-speculated possibility of the netminder signing with his hometown team in Edmonton.  There were no teams specified as likely landing spots but his priorities are finding a team with a chance to win but also provides him a chance at meaningful playing time.

Despite the long layoff, Johnston expects that Hart will get a multi-year contract from whoever he signs with.  That said, it would be surprising if he received more than the $3.979MM he was making with the Flyers on his last contract so it might be in Hart’s best interest to look for a shorter-term pact if he is able to be an impact performer with his next team.

Even if an agreement is reached by the start of next month, he’ll have to wait a couple of weeks to officially sign it.  From there, Hart would be able to practice with the team for a month to work on conditioning before being granted a conditioning stint in mid-November where he will see his first taste of AHL action since 2019.

Pacific Notes: Eichel, Lund, Jarventie

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Jack Eichel and the Golden Knights haven’t hidden their mutual desire to get a long-term extension in place although a deal hasn’t gotten along the finish line just yet.  It appears they’re in agreement on the term side of things at least as Chris Johnston of TSN and The Athletic recently reported (video link) that both sides are happy with a maximum-term agreement of eight years.  Meanwhile, Johnston adds that the likely range of an extension should fall between $13MM and $14MM per season, representing a fairly significant raise on the $10MM he’s receiving on his current deal.  Eichel has averaged more than a point per game since joining Vegas four seasons ago (both in the regular season and playoffs) and is coming off a career year that saw him put up 28 goals and 66 assists in 77 games.

More from the Pacific:

  • Sharks winger Cameron Lund left Friday’s rookie tournament game in the third period after taking a hit to the head, notes Max Miller of Sharks Hockey Digest. The 21-year-old signed with San Jose late in the season after his college campaign came to an end and fit in relatively, picking up two goals and an assist in 11 appearances in 11:30 per night of action.  While Lund probably wasn’t going to be in serious contention to break camp with the big club, this injury could take any chance of that happening off the table.
  • Although he plausibly could have been at Edmonton’s rookie camp, the Oilers elected to not have Roby Jarventie participate as a precaution, relays Jim Matheson of the Edmonton Journal. The winger was limited to just two games last season due to a knee injury and briefly signed in Finland for this year before having a change of heart and re-upping with Edmonton.  Rookie tournament games tend to be a little more erratic than preseason ones so it isn’t surprising to see them not taking any chances.  Jarventie has seven NHL games under his belt from his time with Ottawa and could be in the mix for ice time with the Oilers this season if he’s able to stay healthy.

Blackhawks Sign Spencer Knight To Three-Year Extension

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When the Blackhawks acquired Spencer Knight from Florida as part of the Seth Jones deal prior to the trade deadline, they picked up who they feel can be their goalie of the future in the swap.  They’ve now made sure he’ll be in the fold for a while longer as the team announced that they’ve inked the netminder to a three-year extension worth $17.5MM, or $5.833MM per season.  GM Kyle Davidson released the following statement:

After joining the team in March, Spencer quickly cemented himself as a crucial piece of our future. A talented, young goaltender, he brings athleticism, sound positioning and a calm demeanor to his game, and we’re excited to watch Spencer continue to flourish in Chicago over the next four seasons.

Knight was a first-round pick by Florida back in 2019, going 13th overall.  He quickly made the jump to the pros in 2020 and was the full-time backup for the Panthers in 2021-22.  Soon after, Florida saw fit to give him a fairly significant bridge deal for a netminder with limited experience, signing him to a three-year, $13.5MM pact, the last season of which comes in 2025-26 with the extension running through 2028-29.

Florida didn’t get a great return on that deal at the beginning.  Knight stepped away from the team in February 2023 to enter the Player Assistance Program to treat his Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder.  The following year (the first of the new contract) was spent entirely at the AHL level with the Panthers prioritizing getting Knight as much playing time as possible while Sergei Bobrovsky and Anthony Stolarz comprised Florida’s tandem.  He played relatively well with AHL Charlotte, posting a 2.41 GAA along with a .905 SV% in 45 games that season.

Stolarz moved on to Toronto last season, paving the way for Knight (now waiver-eligible) to return to the Panthers.  He played in 23 games with Florida in 2024-25, putting up a 2.40 GAA and a .907 SV%, both better than the NHL average.  That was good enough to make him the centerpiece of the return for Jones and Chicago gave Knight plenty of playing time down the stretch.  The 24-year-old suited up in 15 contests for the Blackhawks following the swap where he had a 3.18 GAA and a .893 SV% on a group that was prioritizing giving some of their prospects plenty of playing time late in the year.

This deal buys Chicago only one extra year of team control as he still had two RFA-eligible years remaining after this one.  PuckPedia relays (Twitter link) that the contract is front-loaded, paying $7.25MM in 2026-27, $5.75MM in 2027-28, and $4.5MM in 2028-29; he’ll also have a 15-team no-trade clause that year.

Knight will enter the season at the head of a goaltending trio that has quietly become one of the more expensive groups in the league.  Arvid Soderblom begins the first year of his new two-year, $5.5MM pact and will likely be the backup while veteran Laurent Brossoit, who didn’t play last season due to injury, has one year left on his agreement at $3.3MM.

But while this contract cements Knight as the starter for a little while longer, it stops short of handing him the job for the long haul.  That should prove appealing for their prospects as Drew Commesso and Adam Gajan were both second-round picks that Chicago hopes can be part of the future plans as well.  Commesso had a solid year with AHL Rockford in 2024-25 while making his NHL debut while Gajan struggled in his first taste of college action and is probably a couple of years away from turning pro.  If one of them breaks through and seriously pushes for the starting job, Chicago can still pivot and go in that direction while if not, they’ll get the next few years to see if Knight is the right fit for the job for the long haul.

Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman was the first to report that Chicago was signing Knight to an extension.  Bleacher Report’s Frank Seravalli was the first to report the terms.

Photo courtesy of Charles LeClaire-Imagn Images.

Kings’ Corey Perry Undergoes Knee Surgery

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Saturday: The Kings announced that Perry has undergone successful knee surgery and will be out for six to eight weeks.  That means that he will not be available to start the upcoming season and could ultimately miss more than a month if he winds up missing the longer end of that timeline.

Perry has $1.5MM in performance bonuses in his contract that are tied to games played.  However, he only needs to get 50 regular season games played to max out on those so this injury alone shouldn’t stop him from having a chance at earning the full amount of those bonuses.

Friday: According to the staff at Mayor’s Manor, new forward for the Los Angeles Kings, Corey Perry, was reportedly injured in an on-ice incident today at the Toyota Sports Performance Center in El Segundo. The outlet suggests that Perry was taken off the ice in a wheelchair for further medical evaluation.

There’s little information regarding the injury, and it’s unknown at this point if Perry suffered the injury as a result of contact or not. The only information that Mayor’s Manor could provide was that the injury happened along the boards, not on open ice.

It would obviously be a significant blow to Perry and the Kings after the 41-year-old veteran signed a one-year, $2MM contract with Los Angeles at the beginning of the offseason, if he misses significant time due to the injury. Perry was expected to contribute in a bottom-six role, both for his offensive and leadership abilities.

Outside of his 14-year career with the Anaheim Ducks, which included a Stanley Cup ring in 2007 and a Hart Memorial and Maurice Richard Trophy in 2011, Perry’s career has become a point of fascination over the last few seasons. Perry has reached the Stanley Cup Finals five out of six times since signing with the Dallas Stars before the 2019-20 season, after being bought out by the Ducks, but lost each time.

Still, he’s been able to stay relevant and productive in the twilight years of his career. Split between the Stars, Montreal Canadiens, Tampa Bay Lightning, Chicago Blackhawks, and Edmonton Oilers, Perry has scored 76 goals and 159 points in 404 games while averaging 12:51 of ice time per game. Throughout his past six playoff runs, the veteran winger has recorded 28 goals and 52 points in 119 games, averaging 13:17 per game.

Fortunately, the Kings have compiled enough depth, especially on the wing, to sustain such an injury. While Perry’s potential replacement may not have the same value, players like Akil Thomas, Andre Lee, Jeff Malott, or Taylor Ward could temporarily fulfill the role.

Mackenzie Blackwood And Samuel Girard Dealing With Injuries

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The Avalanche knew that they wouldn’t have their full roster available to start the season with winger Logan O’Connor still working his way back from hip surgery.  It appears he’s not the only one dealing with injury concerns though.  Brennan Vogt of Hockey Mountain High reports that goaltender Mackenzie Blackwood and defenseman Samuel Girard are also banged up heading into training camp.

Blackwood didn’t skate with the team during captain’s skates all week and on Friday, worked with goalie coach Jussi Parkilla but voiced some pain when pushing off his right leg during one of the drills.  Notably, he wasn’t taking shots either; combined, those suggest he’s not fully healthy heading into camp.  Blackwood is beginning a five-year, $26.25MM contract signed soon after being acquired in an early-season trade from San Jose.  Scott Wedgewood enters camp as the backup and could be in line for a bit more work early on.  If Blackwood were to miss time to start the season, Trent Miner would likely break camp as the interim backup.

As for Girard, Vogt relays that the blueliner didn’t take part in any of the optional skates since August 17th until yesterday and was skating gingerly in a non-contact sweater, suggesting he could be dealing with a lower-body issue.  The 27-year-old has had some injury trouble for several consecutive seasons now but when healthy, has been a capable top-four blueliner while also being only one of two left-hand shots in their projected top-six.

Colorado currently has around $1.325MM in cap space as things stand, per PuckPedia, meaning that they don’t have to place O’Connor on LTIR.  However, if Blackwood and Girard’s injuries drag into the regular season, operating below the cap ceiling without needing LTIR could become a little trickier, a small subplot to keep an eye on over the next few weeks.

Adrian Kempe Discusses Contract Talks

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Kings forward Adrian Kempe is currently slated to be one of the top unrestricted free agents next summer if the two sides can’t reach a deal on an extension before then.  Speaking in a recent interview with Sirius XM (transcribed by Mayor’s Manor), the 28-year-old made it clear that he’d like to get something done sooner rather than later:

I would like to get it done as soon as possible, but I’m still not in a rush. I don’t want to rush anything. But I also don’t want to come around after Christmas, with the trade deadline starting to come up, and then I’m sitting there not knowing where we’re at or we’re not [close] on the terms of a contract. That, I wouldn’t be looking forward to. So, before Christmas would be great. Before camp would be great.

Kempe is coming off his second straight season of amassing at least 70 points, picking up 35 goals and 38 assists in 81 games.  After being more of a checker in the first few years of his career, he has become one of the more consistent scoring threats in the NHL, averaging 35 goals over the last four seasons.

That has him well-positioned to land a significant raise from the $5.5MM he will make in the final year of his deal, one that started back in 2022-23 and has become one of the better team-friendly contracts around the NHL.  David Pagnotta of The Fourth Period was the latest to suggest that Kempe’s camp was seeking a max-term eight-year extension worth $10MM per season with Los Angeles coming in at $9MM per year.  Meanwhile, AFP Analytics projected a seven-year, $64.225MM deal for Kempe earlier in the offseason, one that would carry an AAV of $9.175MM.

If that gap can’t be bridged within the first few months of the season, Kempe acknowledged that he wouldn’t exactly be comfortable heading into the trade deadline unsigned:

For me and the team, I don’t think it would be a good thing to do that. For me, I feel like, if I haven’t signed before the deadline, then you don’t know what’s going to happen.

Considering both Kempe and the Kings under new GM Ken Holland have publicly stated a willingness to get something done and Kempe’s discomfort with pushing talks deep into the season, this is a situation that should get resolved well before he gets close to testing the market.  And if he does somehow reach free agency, Kempe could very well wind up with a higher price tag than he’s asking for now, especially if few top names actually get there as is typically the case.

Prospect Notes: Frondell, Kraken, Pickford

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The Blackhawks were originally hoping to have Anton Frondell with them for rookie camp as well as main training camp this month, relays Scott Powers of The Athletic (subscription link).  However, when the center indicated that he felt his development would be best served by staying in Sweden with SHL Djurgarden instead of an early-season interruption, they agreed to that plan instead.  Frondell was the third-overall pick back in June on the heels of an impressive showing with Djurgarden in the second-tier Allsvenskan when he had 25 points in 29 games.  That team earned a promotion to the SHL this season, which will give Frondell tougher competition to play against.  GM Kyle Davidson noted that the expectation is that no matter what, this will be Frondell’s final year in Sweden.

More prospect news from around the NHL:

  • The Kraken are without a pair of prospects as their rookie camp begins. The team announced (Twitter link) that defenseman Alexis Bernier is out as he continues to recover from ACL surgery while center Julius Miettinen is dealing with an upper-body injury sustained in training camp with WHL Everett.  Bernier had a strong post-draft season with QMJHL Baie-Comeau, collecting 14 goals and 32 assists in 59 games but isn’t eligible to play in the minors this season.  As for Miettinen, he notched 39 points in 36 games with the Silvertips and briefly spent time as a reserve with AHL Coachella Valley in the playoffs.  However, he also isn’t eligible to play in the minors this season.
  • The Canadiens announced (Twitter link) that defenseman Bryce Pickford is dealing with a lower-body injury and didn’t take part in practice today. The 19-year-old wasn’t drafted in his first year of eligibility last year but went in the third round back in June, going 81st overall.  Pickford had a breakout year offensively in 2024-25, notching 20 goals and 27 assists in 48 regular season games with WHL Medicine Hat before adding 24 more points in 18 postseason contests.

Brad Hunt Signs In Finland

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Friday: Hunt has indeed signed with Vaasan Sport with the team announcing that he has signed a one-year contract.

Monday: Longtime pro defenseman Brad Hunt is expected to take his career overseas for the first time next season. He is set to sign with Vaasan Sport of Finland’s Liiga, per Tony Androckitis of Inside AHL Hockey. Hunt recently concluded his 14th season in the North American pros. His only rich experience with playing in Europe came during the spring of 2023, when he joined Team Canada for the World Championships, which were played in Latvia that year.

Hunt, 37, has already built up a career worth being proud of. He was originally overlooked in the NHL Draft – the consequence of being a 5-foot-9 defenseman – but earned a pro contract after four strong years at Bemidji State University. Hunt made his AHL debut in 2012 and quickly looked the part of a strong play-driver.

He played his way into three NHL appearances with the Edmonton Oilers in 2013-14, coupled with a breakout performance in the AHL that saw him post 50 points in 66 games. Hunt continued that pace – great AHL scoring mixed in with a handful of NHL starts – through the 2016-17 season.

Hunt seemed doomed to the role of fringe-NHL defenseman until 2017-18, when the Vegas Golden Knights operated with him on the NHL roster for the whole season. Hunt stepped into 45 games and scored 18 points that year, enough to earn him a solid NHL role for the next four seasons, even through moves to the Minnesota Wild and Vancouver Canucks.

He didn’t return to the AHL until the 2022-23 season, when he donned the captaincy for the Colorado Eagles and scored 21 points in 24 games. Hunt served an additional year as the Eagles’ captain before moving to the Hershey Bears last season. He scored just 19 points in 41 games with Hershey last year, though he managed a lofty 49 points in 70 games in the 2023-24 season.

Hunt now sits with 86 points in 288 games, and 10 seasons, in the NHL and 298 points in 422 games, and nine seasons, in the AHL. He will now take that deep resume to one of Finland’s emerging clubs. Vaasan finished last season ranked 11th out of the Liiga’s 16 teams. They struggled to consistently drive up the scoring, which is something that the puck-moving Hunt should be able to directly address.

Maple Leafs, Anthony Stolarz Holding Extension Talks

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Sep. 12th: David Pagnotta of The Fourth Period offered an update today regarding the ongoing extension talks between Stolarz and the Maple Leafs. Unfortunately, Pagnotta indicated that no progress has been made to date, although both sides remain hopeful and are still committed to working something out.

Sep. 3rd: The Leafs have opened extension discussions with goaltender Anthony Stolarz, general manager Brad Treliving tells Pierre LeBrun of The Athletic. He divulged that those talks have been ongoing “for some time” and that they’ve explored multiple options, presumably those with varying term.

Stolarz is a slam-dunk extension target, even with the younger and highly competent Joseph Woll as the other half of Toronto’s tandem. The 31-year-old has been one of the better backups in the league for some time before landing with the Leafs in free agency last year, finishing fifth in Vezina Trophy voting after posting a league-high .926 SV% in a career-high 33 starts and one relief appearance.

That strong play yielded a 21-8-3 record along with a 2.14 GAA and four shutouts. He was incredibly consistent over the course of the season, and by the numbers, no one in the league was more effective on a per-game basis. Among goalies with at least 15 appearances, no goalie saved more goals above expected per 60 minutes than Stolarz’s 0.779 mark, per MoneyPuck. That figure is a whole 0.144 clear of Vezina winner Connor Hellebuyck’s.

Still, that elite level of play combined with his outright lack of track record as a starter or even 1A option makes him something of a unicorn. Stolarz had never even started 25 games in a season entering last year, although his career numbers (.917 SV%, 2.55 GAA, 64-39-12 record in 142 GP) remain well above average since he made his NHL debut with the Flyers back in 2016.

His lack of ice time has been influenced by a variety of reasons, but none more pertinent than his injury history. He would have started the majority of his team’s games for the first time last year if not for midseason knee surgery – his second in the last three years – that kept him out for nearly two months. He began the postseason as Toronto’s starter and guided them to a six-game dispatching of the Senators in the first round, but sustained a concussion in Game 1 of their second-round loss against the Panthers, ending his season.

Yet that also paints a picture of Stolarz being an incredibly resilient goaltender, reaching his peak and establishing himself as an elite tandem option 13 years after Philadelphia took him in the second round of the 2012 draft. The 6’6″, 234-lb netminder has now posted a save percentage north of .920 in four of his last six NHL seasons, and his .926 combined SV% over the last two seasons leads everyone with at least 25 starts.

Treliving already made something of an insurance policy for himself by signing Woll to a three-year, $11MM extension as soon as he became eligible to ink one last year. That contract is only going into effect now, meaning Woll, who has a 39-25-2 record and .908 SV% over his first two seasons as a full-time NHL option, is locked in at a $3.67MM cap hit through 2027-28. It would make sense that Toronto opines for a three-year extension for Stolarz, keeping his injury history in mind, but staggering the expiry of his and Woll’s contracts.

His open-market value is hard to predict. Even after excelling in a backup role with the Panthers in 2023-24, he only landed a two-year deal with a $2.5MM cap hit with Toronto in free agency. AFP Analytics projects a two-year extension for Stolarz at just north of $4.25MM per season – that’s with the projected cap jump to $104MM – and the AAV likely wouldn’t differ much with an additional year of term.

That would still make Stolarz and Woll, the latter of whom is just entering his prime, one of the most cost-effective tandems in the league, especially when considering the market set by extensions for names like Logan Thompson ($5.85MM AAV) and Adin Hill ($6.25MM AAV) last season. Without a slam-dunk prospect in the system behind Woll and next summer’s premier UFA options (Sergei Bobrovsky, Filip Gustavsson, Jacob Markström) likely out of their price range, hedging their bets on Stolarz and Woll continuing to split the crease in a more cost-effective manner is likely their best path forward.

West Notes: Hague, Makar, Booth

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In a recent interview with Danny Webster of the Las Vegas Review-Journal, Nashville Predators defenseman Nicolas Hague spoke about the end of his tenure with the Vegas Golden Knights. According to Hague, it doesn’t sound like he was given a particularly warm goodbye from the only organization he had ever known.

Even before the 2025 Stanley Cup playoffs, Hague believed he would be extended by the Golden Knights, saying, “I thought I had a deal done with Vegas done before the playoffs, and we had agreed on what it was going to be. On both sides, it was a word agreement. Obviously nothing was signed. Because I said to them, ‘We’re going into the playoffs. That’s the No. 1 priority right now and we’ll reconvene and get this done after the season.’ It was all good.”

As it turns out, Vegas pivoted away from their purported verbal agreement with Hague, needing to open the necessary cap space to acquire Mitch Marner from the Toronto Maple Leafs in a sign-and-trade. The day before the trade was made for Marner, the Golden Knights traded Hague to the Predators for Jeremy Lauzon, Colton Sissons, and a 2027 third-round pick. Hague subsequently signed a four-year, $22MM extension in Nashville.

Other notes from the Western Conference:

  • Earlier today, Meghan Angley provided a brief injury update regarding Taylor Makar, the younger brother of Colorado Avalanche defenseman Cale Makar. Makar is recovering from offseason upper-body surgery, and Angley asserts that he’ll be ready in the next few weeks. In the meantime, he’ll continue skating with the team in a non-contact jersey.
  • One defensive prospect for the Los Angeles Kings is looking to avoid the dreaded “sophomore slump” this season. In an interview with Anthony Collazo of The Mayor’s Manor, prospect Angus Booth spoke about his mission to avoid the slump, saying, “I think you just don’t want to think about. The more you think about it, the more it could happen. So, I think you just focus on the moment. You practice, you play hard, you do what you’re going to do usually, and it should… it should be avoided.” The former fourth-round pick spent last season with the AHL’s Ontario Reign, scoring two goals and 13 points in 50 games with a +6 rating.

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