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Jets, Dylan Samberg Avoid Arbitration

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8:56 a.m.: The Jets have confirmed Samberg’s new deal. The contract pays him $4.25MM in 2025-26 and $6.5MM each in 2026-27 and 2027-28, according to Ken Wiebe of the Winnipeg Free Press.

7:06 a.m.: The Jets have agreed to a three-year deal with defenseman Dylan Samberg, avoiding his arbitration hearing that was set for later today, Murat Ates of The Athletic was first to report. The only restricted free agent so far to even get to the point of swapping arbitration figures with his club lands a $5.75MM AAV for a total value of $17.25MM.

Samberg wasn’t under team control past this offseason, so he was only eligible for a one-year deal had the two sides needed their hearing to come to terms. He lands an extra two years of security and will become an unrestricted free agent in 2028 – quite close to his likely career peak at age 29 – and lands a salary quite close to his reported $6MM filing in the process. With Samberg now under contract, the Jets have avoided arbitration hearings with their entire class: Samberg, Morgan Barron, and Gabriel Vilardi.

Samberg, 26, has put up monster defensive results from the jump since becoming a full-time NHLer in 2022-23, but only last season did he prove he could carry that over into top-four minutes. In 60 appearances, he logged a career-high 6-14–20 scoring line with a +34 rating, leading the Jets and ranking seventh in the league. He received his toughest defensive deployment to date (58.6 dZS% at even strength) but flourished as Winnipeg’s No. 2 lefty behind Josh Morrissey, helping anchor their second pairing with Neal Pionk while posting a 51.1 CF% and 55.0 xGF%.

For a Jets team whose defensive success over the past few seasons has been driven more by goaltender Connor Hellebuyck than the team’s possession play, those are great numbers. He averaged 21:08 per game last season, and without any meaningful changes on Winnipeg’s blue line this summer, he’s in line for that kind of deployment presumably for the life of this deal.

Putting contracts signed under the pressure of a looming arbitration hearing into context isn’t always a perfect art, but the end result here isn’t too far off from what past comparables projected. AFP Analytics projected a five-year, $5.2MM AAV agreement for Samberg at the beginning of the offseason. That would make this shorter-term pact look a tad pricey, but that figure didn’t take into account the rash of rich deals that have been handed out to big stay-at-home lefties this summer. Considering Nicolas Hague’s four-year, $5.5MM AAV deal and Kevin Bahl’s six-year, $5.35MM contract, the deal is within range, even if the Jets may have paid a small premium to ensure they retain him past this season.

With that, Maple Leafs winger Nicholas Robertson has the only open arbitration case. His hearing is scheduled for Sunday.

John Miszuk Passes Away

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Former NHL defenseman John Miszuk passed away on Sunday at age 84, the NHL Alumni Association announced.

Miszuk played parts of six NHL seasons with the Red Wings, Black Hawks, Flyers, and North Stars from 1963-70 before reemerging in the WHA in the mid-70s, playing a full-time role for the Michigan Stags/Baltimore Blades and Calgary Cowboys from 1974-77. While he sparingly played a full-time role in the NHL, he was a physically dominant two-way force in the minors, where he was a routine All-Star in the AHL, an early iteration of the Central Hockey League, and a senior/professional version of the Western Hockey League.

Miszuk’s best NHL season was the only time he played in every game in a season, as a member of Philadelphia’s inaugural roster in the 1967-68 campaign. He was 27 at the time and was selected from Chicago in the expansion draft after playing mostly a minor-league role in the preceding seasons, but he broke out for 22 points in 74 games with a plus-one rating and finished fourth on the team with 79 PIMs. He was an everyday member of a Flyers defense group that was stout out of the gate, finishing third in the league with 2.42 GA/GP in their first NHL season.

In 237 career NHL appearances, Miszuk scored seven goals with 39 assists for 46 points and a minus-two rating. He also had 72 points and a plus-seven rating in 214 WHA games, where he found more stability later in his career.

He and his family had lived in Hamilton, Ontario after his retirement, where they launched several Tim Hortons franchises. While he was raised there for a good portion of his childhood, he was born in Poland early in World War II and emigrated to Canada with his family after being forced out. He recently returned to his hometown of Naliboki, now part of Belarus, for the first time since then, the NHL Alumni Association said.

Pro Hockey Rumors sends our condolences to Miszuk’s family, friends, and loved ones.

Bruins’ Charlie McAvoy Good To Go For 2025-26

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Boston Bruins defenseman Charlie McAvoy hasn’t played in game action since sustaining a shoulder injury during February’s 4-Nations Face-Off. He specifically injured the AC joint in his right shoulder. The injury then became infected, forcing McAvoy to undergo an irrigation and debridement procedure to remove debris from his shoulder. It would prove a season-ending ailment for McAvoy, but despite procedures and an extended stay away from the ice, the Bruins’ top defenseman has shared he’ll be ready for puck drop next season. He told Steve Conroy of the Boston Herald:

[My summer training plan] was [focused on] ‘how are we going to get better? How are we going to get healthy? How are we going to get to where I know I can be going into this year?’ And then since then, it’s just been all excitement, hitting a lot of marks and accomplishing a lot off the ice and now I’m starting to ramp up more on the ice, so I feel great. And mentally, I’m super-excited about this year.

McAvoy ended the season with seven goals and 23 points in 50 NHL games, and no scoring in two 4-Nations games. The Bruins would go on to miss the postseason for the first time since the 2016 season, before McAvoy had joined the team. He expressed frustration with missing the postseason for the first time in his career, but found the silver-lining of some extra time to condition his injury.

Health specifics aside, it’s hard to imagine McAvoy wouldn’t have tried to push his way into the lineup had the Bruins made the playoffs. He has been the team’s confident #1-defenseman since his second year in the NHL in 2018-19. By then, Bruins legend Zdeno Chara had crossed the hill of age-40, and was working his way out of a nightly top-pair role. McAvoy was there to make up for the lost minutes. He’s averaged north of 22 minutes each night in every single season of his eight-year NHL career, and took over the title of most minutes on the team in 2018-19.

With a clear-cut role on the top pair, McAvoy has found his way to lofty totals on the scoresheet’s scoreboard and penalty box. He scored a career-high 10 goals and 56 points in 78 games of the 2021-22 season, while averaging 24:38 in nightly ice time. It was a true career performance that McAvoy kept up with 52 points in 67 games of 2022-23, then one-upped with 12 goals, 47 points, and 24:51 in average ice time in the 2023-24 season.

His scoring pace dwindled this season – though McAvoy’s final score of the season marked his 300th NHL point. It took him 504 games to get their, making McAvoy the third-fastest Bruins defender to reach the mark, behind record-holder Bobby Orr and Boston legend Ray Bourque.

It will be the momentum of joining two iconic Boston defensemen that pushes McAvoy forward heading into next season. He emphasized his good health, and shared with Conroy that he and winger David Pastrnak will serve as the club’s assistant captains in the new season. 2025-26 will mark the fourth-year in the eight-year contract extension McAvoy signed in 2021. He’s so far recorded 122 points in 191 games on the contract – or an 82-game average of 52 points each season. Improving on that mark will be top priority as McAvoy enters his prime years, and age-27 season.

Bruins Prospect Cole Spicer Won’t Play At Arizona State University

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Boston Bruins forward prospect Cole Spicer won’t move forward with his commitment to Arizona State University, per Brad Elliot Schlossman of the Grand Forks Herald. Spicer previously played two years at the University of Minnesota-Duluth, but returned to the USHL’s Dubuque Fighting Saints for the 2024-25 season. He was set to join Arizona State as a junior-year transfer this fall. Instead, it will be a fall of uncertainty for the 2022 fourth-round pick.

Of note, Spicer’s split from ASU could be a result of being sidelined. He was said to be dealing with significant injury issues, per sources available to Ty Anderson of Boston’s 98.5 The Sports Hub. Spicer dealt with concussions through his time in junior and collegiate hockey, and has been severely limited through multiple parts of the last two seasons. He missed 20 games with Minnesota-Duluth in 2023-24 due to a concussion and being declared academically-ineligible for the second semester. His injury woes continued through this season, as he missed 25 games with Dubuque for various reasons. He even sustained an injury in his very first game with the Fighting Saints.

The plot around Spicer’s relationship with hockey has grown thick. He cited recovery from concussions as a major limiter of his academic performance in a 2024 interview with Joe Haggerty of the Boston Sports Journal. Spicer also cited the mental health challenges that came with routine absences, low-scoring, and battles through concussion recovery. Struggles with concentration and mental health are two common, but often underdiscussed, symptoms of concussions that can drag on beyond official clearance to return.

Spicer was once a top prospect in America’s 2004 age group. He was recruited to the U.S. National Team Development Program’s 2004 cohort in 2020, after a 15u AAA season that saw him post 51 goals, 118 assists, and 169 points in 63 games with Honeybaked. Spicer struggled to earn a starring role at the NTDP behind Logan Cooley, Frank Nazar, and Rutger McGroarty. He was relegated to a bottom-six role in both seasons, and scored just 21 points in 46 USHL games with the Program. Still, his high-motor and gritty forechecking was enough to convince Boston to draft Spicer with the 117th-overall pick in 2022.

Spicer followed his draft selection with a move to the Bulldogs lineup. He again found himself trapped behind a stacked top-six, and scored just six points in 32 games from a fourth-line role in his freshman year. He added nine points in 17 games as a sophomore, before stepping away from the team. It was a quartet of underwhelming seasons for the feisty centerman – but one that he made up for with a return to the USHL this season. He scored 35 points in 37 games on the full year, good for Dubuque’s team-lead in points-per-game.

As things stand, there appears to be no clear path forward for Spicer. At age 21, he’ll no longer have eligibility to return to the USHL or CHL. He could transfer to a third – or, fourth, after an initial commitment to North Dakota – collegiate program, though another NCAA move would be a surprise on the heels of this news. With that, it seems minor-league, or European, pros will be his best options, should he decide to continue his career next season. The Grand Forks-native will be one to watch for Bruins fans trying to get a full picture of the team’s pipeline.

Senators’ Carter Yakemchuk Working To Make Opening Night Roster

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Right-defense was a sore spot for the Ottawa Senators throughout the entire 2024-25 season. They iced five different players on the right-side, and even parted with Jacob Bernard-Docker at the Trade Deadline. For top Senators prospect Carter Yakemchuk, that lineup weakness stands as a golden opportunity. Now in his first year of NHL/AHL eligibility, Yakemchuk told Julian McKenzie of The Athletic that he’s fully geared towards making the NHL roster out of camp.

Yakemchuk shared that he has returned to working with Calgary-based CRASH Conditioning this summer, after joining the program following his draft selection last year. In that regiment, his summer training is overseen by Seattle Kraken assistant coach Dave Lowry – as well as former pro-turned-coach Dan Bakala and David Liffiton, who will move to an assistant coach role with the AHL’s Calgary Wranglers next season. Yakemchuk emphasizes that the coaching staff has him on the right path, telling McKenzie:

I’m looking forward to [training camp]. My goal is to make the opening roster… And I’m looking forward to putting in the work that it takes to make that.

Building out his defensive game has been a key focus of Yakemchuk’s development. Lowry pointed out to McKenzie that Yakemchuk’s offense is already, clearly, at a top level – and it’s the hard-nosed play away from the puck that he’ll need to earn an NHL role. Luckily, that’s the exact point that other coaches praised when reflecting on Yakemchuk’s summer. Liffiton – who coached Yakemchuk at the WHL’s Calgary Hitmen last season – emphasized that Yakemchuk’s defensive game has taken major strides forward, which helps explain his drastic decrease in scoring this season. After netting 30 goals and 71 points in 66 games last year, the former seventh-overall pick scored just 17 goals and 49 points in 56 games this year.

But as pointed out by the CRASH coaches, that decrease was all by design. Even through the spot scoring, Yakemchuk prevailed as one of the best puck-moving defensemen in his age group. He continued to dominate possession and flash exciting stickhandling for a defender of his size – but showed the patience to make smart passes to his forwards, like 2025 11th-overall pick Benjamin Kindel. All the while, Yakemchuk continued to grow in his ability to dominate the corners and low-slot with his heavy frame. Strong skating helped him get chippy with opponents in front, and it was rare that an opposing body-check knocked him off balance.

In the name of growing defense, Yakemchuk’s breakout goal-scoring from 2023-24 can afford to subside a bit. He’s a burly 6-foot-4, 200-pound defender who throws hits just as hard as he shoots – evidenced by his 202 penalty minutes in 122 WHL games over the last two seasons. Those will be the attributes that earn him a full-time role on a Senators’ blue-line already housing the fearless Artem Zub and Nick Jensen on the right-side.

If Yakemchuk’s growing physicality sticks, he could find incredible opportunity in Ottawa’s lineup. Neither Zub nor Jensen offer much scoring upside at all, which seems to limit the ground that star left-defenders Jake Sanderson and Thomas Chabot can gain. Bringing in another burly defender capable of driving the puck all the way down the ice, and creating strong scoring chances, could go a long way towards clearing up more space for Ottawa’s best defenders.

Yakemchuk is no stranger to a tough role. He seemed to be on the ice for every one of the Hitmen’s biggest moments over the last two seasons, and averaged 18 minutes of even-strength ice-time alone in both years. That conditioning could come in handy as he joins a team that’s no stranger to awarding their top defenders with 23 or 24 minutes a night. The lucrative lineup role ahead, and determined focus on making the roster, will make Yakemchuk a pivotal player to watch as training camps roll around.

AHL Notes: Toporowski, Perets, Hookey

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The AHL’s Hershey Bears, the Capitals’ primary development affiliate, announced Tuesday they’ve signed forward Luke Toporowski to a one-year deal.

The minor-league pact comes after completing his entry-level contract with the Bruins, which he signed in 2023 after beginning his professional career on an AHL deal with their affiliate in Providence. He was traded to the Wild at the 2024 deadline in the deal that sent winger Pat Maroon to Boston, but Minnesota chose not to give him a qualifying offer last month when his ELC expired.

Toporowski, 24, finished eighth on the Iowa Wild in scoring last season with a 13-15–28 line in 53 games. He was the first Iowa-born player to skate for the Wild’s top affiliate and now joins the Washington organization with 85 points in 166 career AHL games over the last three seasons.

The 5’11” winger doesn’t have any NHL experience to his name, but he’s been a generally productive middle-six winger at all levels thus far and likely has a lengthy minor-league career still ahead of him. He also had 199 points and 224 PIMs in 245 career junior games with the WHL’s Spokane Chiefs and Kamloops Blazers.

Here are more moves out of the AHL:

  • After being non-tendered by the Hurricanes, goaltender Yaniv Perets found a new home last week when he signed an AHL deal with the Lehigh Valley Phantoms. The 25-year-old backstopped Quinnipiac to a national championship in 2023 and immediately landed with Carolina in free agency, although he’s spent most of the last two seasons in the ECHL. He’s nonetheless made one relief appearance for the Canes in each of his two professional seasons, allowing one goal on just eight career shots faced. The Quebec native put up a sparkling .921 SV% in 27 games for the ECHL’s Bloomington Bison last season and will now look to turn that into an everyday role with the Phantoms. However, he faces an uphill battle with the more established Aleksei Kolosov and Philadelphia’s top goaltending prospect Carson Bjarnason set to form the usual tandem in Lehigh Valley this year.
  • The Belleville Senators announced the signing of 21-year-old winger Landon Hookey to a two-year deal. While his 6’5″, 223-lb frame wasn’t enough to earn him an NHL contract after going undrafted, he’ll still stick the landing and begin his pro career after a breakout overage season with the OHL’s Owen Sound Attack. He served as an alternate captain last year and led the team in scoring (34-36–70) with 77 PIMs in 68 games.

Jimmy Vesey Receiving KHL Offers

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Free agent winger Jimmy Vesey is receiving offers from multiple Kontinental Hockey League clubs without an NHL offer on the table so far this offseason, according to Daria Tuboltseva of RG.org.

Vesey, 32, finished the season with the Avalanche after they acquired him from the Rangers in March in the Ryan Lindgren deal. He was hoping for a more consistent role in Denver after a string of healthy scratches in New York led Vesey to tell Larry Brooks of the New York Post that he was “kind of dying by being here,” but that didn’t happen. He only played in 10 of Colorado’s final 21 regular-season games and did not dress in their first-round playoff loss to the Stars.

Vesey finished the season with a 5-3–8 scoring line in 43 games of action between the Rangers and Avs, his fewest NHL appearances in a single season since beginning his career in 2016. The 6’2′, 203-lb winger also averaged a career-low 10:39 per game with only 12 blocks and 32 hits. His possession impacts were similarly pedestrian, as they have been for most of his nine NHL seasons.

Understandably, Vesey was not offered an extension by the Avs and has had a hard time finding a deal nearly a month into free agency. That has him “seriously considering offers” from the KHL as compared to trying to look for a minor-league contract to continue playing in North America.

SKA St. Petersburg has been the most aggressive in pursuing the veteran of over 600 NHL games, Tuboltseva reports. He’s also fielded calls from Ak Bars Kazan, Dinamo Minsk, and Kunlun Red Star, where he could reunite with former Rangers coach Gerard Gallant, under whom he spent the 2022-23 season.

Minor Transactions: Zbořil, Frasca, Fulp

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Former Bruins first-rounder Jakub Zbořil has terminated his contract with Czechia’s HC Dynamo Pardubice, the club announced today. The Extraliga squad didn’t say whether the termination was so that Zbořil could pursue an NHL return or if he intends to remain overseas.

Now 28, the left-shot defenseman headed to Pardubice last summer after becoming an unrestricted free agent and failing to land a contract from a camp tryout with the Devils. Zbořil made 30 regular-season appearances, scoring 14 points with a plus-four rating. That was his best offensive output in a season since he scored 19 points in 58 games for the AHL’s Providence Bruins in 2019-20.

The 2015 No. 13 pick never panned out for Boston, but he seemed to get things back on track back home in Czechia and will now look for a different opportunity, likely in a more competitive European league like the KHL or SHL if he doesn’t anticipate returning to the NHL. He has 16 points and an even rating in 76 career NHL appearances, all with the Bruins.

There’s more minor moves from across the hockey world:

  • Free agent forward Jordan Frasca has signed a one-year deal with the ECHL’s Reading Royals, the Flyers’ affiliate announced. Frasca, 24, spent last season in the Predators organization after being acquired from the Penguins in last summer’s Cody Glass trade. Injuries limited him to just five appearances with ECHL Atlanta, though, where he scored one goal and four assists. He has 50 points in 81 career ECHL games over the last three years and now takes his talents to Reading after being non-tendered by Nashville.
  • Ex-Islanders defense prospect Aidan Fulp has caught on in the Sabres organization on a deal with the AHL’s Rochester Americans, per a team press release. Fulp was an undrafted free agent signing by the Isles out of Western Michigan in 2023 but was non-tendered this summer when his entry-level contract expired. The 25-year-old righty posted 13 points in 84 games for AHL Bridgeport since turning pro along with a -29 rating.

Poll: Will Marco Rossi Return To The Wild?

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The trade market has been slower than predicted since draft day. There have been some notable RFA names changing hands, K’Andre Miller and Nicolas Hague among them, but others who were tabbed as likely candidates to move amid a gap in contract talks ended up staying put.

One of them is Wild center Marco Rossi, who remains unsigned and is beginning to see his name brought back to the forefront with most other summer business now settled. Multiple reports in the last few days have indicated there’s been no contract dialogue between Rossi’s camp and the Minnesota front office since June. That was something Rossi was okay with as he waited for a competitive offer sheet to come in and speed the sign (or trade) process along, but no deal ever came.

While there was considerable trade interest in Rossi’s signing rights earlier in the offseason, teams were reportedly put off by Rossi’s desire for a long-term deal in the $7MM range annually. Wild general manager Bill Guerin, staunchly unwilling to dole out that money, has since had his value assessment of Rossi backed up by loads of other teams, as Rossi can’t find the contract he desires.

In most cases, this would lead a player to acquiesce to a bridge deal and try to meet their financial hopes again in a year or two. But if Rossi signs a short-term contract with the Wild, there are two significant risks he’s opening himself up to that have been discussed at length in the last couple of months. Not only could a bridge deal facilitate a trade for Rossi, who’s ineligible for any protection, to a team he doesn’t want to go to, it could also damage his future earning potential if he feels he doesn’t get advantageous deployment.

The latter is a legitimate concern after how the 2024-25 season ended. The diminutive but skilled 23-year-old center looked at home in a top-six role in the regular season, averaging 18:15 per game and notching 60 points in 82 appearances as Minnesota’s top-line anchor for most of the year. His minutes were slashed in the Wild’s first-round loss to the Golden Knights, though, seeing fourth-line deployment in just over 11 minutes per game. He still managed a pair of goals and an assist in the six-game defeat, with both tallies coming at even strength.

Understandably, that left a sour taste in Rossi’s mouth after a regular season in which he proved he can be a capable top-six producer. The 2020 No. 9 overall pick has next to no leverage in his current situation, though. With Guerin content to continue holding pat in the Wild’s position, there’s no incentive for him to trade Rossi unless someone offers a piece he feels improves their roster composition immediately. Since those offers haven’t come so far, there’s little reason to believe they will now, especially with reporting on that front remaining quiet.

That leaves the Austrian forward completely at the mercy of someone tendering an offer sheet. It’s still a legitimate possibility, even if it’s not an overwhelmingly likely one. The Blues’ dual offer sheets to Oilers RFAs Philip Broberg and Dylan Holloway last year didn’t come until mid-August. Doing so would also permit a team to surrender only draft picks to bring in Rossi, a package the Wild wouldn’t be thrilled to accept in a trade as they look to remain playoff contenders and help their case to convince superstar pending UFA Kirill Kaprizov not to test the open market next summer.

Minnesota could still match that offer sheet, though, leaving Rossi in a position where he’ll likely only sign one if it’s reasonably close to his initial ask. Since those offers haven’t been there in trade talks, why would they be there now?

With no resolution in sight, we’re asking PHR readers how they think things will play out between the two sides. Vote in our poll below:

If you can’t see the poll, click here to vote.

Markus Nutivaara Signs With Liiga’s Kärpät

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Former NHL defenseman Markus Nutivaara is launching a comeback bid after retiring two years ago due to hip issues. Kärpät, which plays in the Finnish rearguard’s hometown of Oulu, announced they’ve signed him to a one-year deal.

While the 31-year-old Nutivaara has only been retired for two years, it’s been longer than that since he actually played. His last appearance at any level came with the Panthers on Oct. 29, 2021, his lone appearance of the 2021-22 campaign. He logged an assist but played just 7:01 as he attempted a comeback from his first of multiple hip surgeries.

Nutivaara was an unrestricted free agent the following summer and attempted to get his career back on track by signing a one-year deal with the Sharks, but his continued hip problems prevented him from making an appearance for them. The 6’1″ lefty has remained unsigned ever since.

A seventh-round pick out of Kärpät by the Blue Jackets in 2015 – three years after he was initially eligible for selection – Nutivaara made the jump to North America one year later. He remained an NHL fixture aside from a three-game stint in the minors in 2017-18, becoming a good two-way piece in a depth role for Columbus. Although he consistently saw bottom-pairing deployment, averaging 15:48 per game, he still managed a 17-43–60 scoring line with a +25 rating in 244 appearances for the Jackets in his four years there.

Columbus traded Nutivaara to Florida following the 2019-20 season. He played 30 out of 56 regular-season games for the Cats in the COVID-shortened 2021 season, recording 10 points and a plus-one rating.

His comeback bid comes after Nutivaara had another hip procedure in November 2024 to have an artificial joint installed, Kärpät said. Even if he can’t get back into game shape, Nutivaara said his recovery has gone well enough to allow him to return to a relatively normal, pain-free life.

Nutivaara won a Liiga championship with Kärpät in his rookie year back in 2014-15, contributing six points in 16 playoff games for a roster led by former NHL winger Joonas Donskoi that also included a 17-year-old Sebastian Aho.

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