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Vegas Golden Knights Sign Shea Theodore To Seven-Year Extension

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The Vegas Golden Knights are keeping one of their most important pending unrestricted free agents for the long haul. The team announced they had signed defenseman Shea Theodore to a seven-year contract extension worth $51.975MM, making for an AAV of $7.425MM.  Pierre LeBrun of TSN and The Athletic reports that the deal breaks down as follows:

2025-26: $9.5MM
2026-27: $9.5MM
2027-28: $8.6MM
2028-29: $7.275MM
2029-30: $5.7MM
2030-31: $5.7MM
2031-32: $5.7MM

Theodore is one of three original members of the Golden Knights organization left, and this extension will keep him with the team through the 2031-32 NHL season. He was projected to become one of the most sought-after defensemen in free agency next offseason, making this extension somewhat of a hometown discount. Evolving-Hockey projected Theodore to land an eight-year extension worth just over $9MM a season, meaning the Golden Knights will get him for $1.5MM cheaper, with the salary cap continuing to rise.

Part of the lower-than-expected price tag may be due to Theodore’s availability over the last several years. The former 26th overall pick of the 2013 NHL Draft only managed 180 regular-season games for Vegas from 2021 to the end of last season, losing over a quarter of the games due to various injuries. Should his injury history continue into this contract, it could mark one of the riskier extensions of the last year.

Despite the absence due to injuries over the last few years, there is credibility for the Golden Knights, making Theodore their second-highest-paid defenseman. He’s arguably been Vegas’ best offensive weapon from the blue line over his eight-year tenure, scoring 67 goals and 296 points in 450 games, with 88 points from the powerplay.

He hasn’t been a slouch on the other side of the puck, either. Theodore has posted an impressive 58.8 CF% with a 91.0% on-ice save percentage in all situations throughout his time in Sin City, with an expected rating of +78.4, according to Hockey Reference. There’s an argument to be made that much of Theodore’s success in the possession metrics comes from his 63.2% offensive zone start rate, but it wouldn’t excuse all of it from a defenseman who’s averaged nearly 22 minutes of ice time per game.

Starting next season, the Golden Knights will have $23.575MM invested in three defensemen at the top of their lineup. This may prohibit the organization from retaining other pending unrestricted and restricted free agents currently on the roster, but it’s par for the course from one of the league’s most aggressive franchises.

Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.

Nick Ritchie Signs In Slovakia

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Former NHL winger Nick Ritchie has found a place to play for 2024-25. Slovakia’s HC Nove Zamky announced on Facebook that he’d inked a one-year deal.

Ritchie, 28, last played in the NHL with the Coyotes and Flames in the 2022-23 season. He began the year in Arizona and was a decent depth scoring option, scoring nine goals and 12 assists for 21 points in 58 games. At the trade deadline, he was dealt to the Flames for his brother, Brett Ritchie, and finished the year with five points in 16 games for Calgary.

He wasn’t re-signed upon reaching unrestricted free agency. Ritchie had to settle for a professional tryout, inking a PTO to attend the Blues’ training camp in 2023 but was released and wasn’t offered a contract. That signaled the likely end of Ritchie’s NHL career unless he could dominate on an AHL contract or overseas.

The 2014 10th overall pick attempted to do the latter, signing with Finland’s Kärpät. It didn’t go to plan, though. He scored just once and posted a whopping 70 PIMs and a -7 rating in 10 games. They mutually terminated his contract, and he finished the year in Germany with the Iserlohn Roosters, where things didn’t go much better with two points and a -4 rating in eight appearances.

Unsigned for this year up to this point, Ritchie will now look to ply his trade in a slightly less competitive European professional circuit in Slovakia. He joins Nove Zamky’s roster as the only player with NHL experience besides defenseman Shawn Lalonde, who appeared in one game with the Blackhawks in the 2012-13 season.

Barring a significant resurgence overseas, Ritchie’s NHL stats will likely remain where they are until he retires. The 6’3″ left-winger made 481 appearances for the Ducks, Coyotes, Bruins, Maple Leafs, and Flames across eight seasons, scoring 84 goals and adding 102 assists for 186 points.

Lightning To Reassign Conor Sheary

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Oct. 24: Sheary has cleared waivers, per Friedman. He can now be assigned to Syracuse at will, something Eduardo A. Encina of the Tampa Bay Times reports will happen in short order.

Oct. 23: The Lightning have placed winger Conor Sheary on waivers for the purpose of assignment to AHL Syracuse, per Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet.

Sheary’s time in Tampa hasn’t gone to plan since inking a three-year, $6MM contract in free agency in 2023. He missed significant time in the first half of last season with an upper-body injury and wasn’t the same after coming back, serving as a healthy scratch on several occasions later on. His four goals in 57 games were his lowest ever in a season, and his 15 points were undermined only by his 10 in 44 games with the Penguins in his rookie season in 2015-16.

Fast forward to the beginning of this season, and little has changed for the 32-year-old. He was a healthy scratch for the Lightning’s first game and has only played every other contest, going without a point and recording a -2 rating in third-line minutes alongside Michael Eyssimont and Conor Geekie. Possession quality has become an issue for the veteran, who controlled a career-low 43.5% of expected goals at even strength last season.

Sheary will likely clear waivers given the money and term left on his deal. If so, and assuming he reports to Syracuse, it will mark his first AHL action since he was part of the Penguins organization nine years ago. The preference on both sides would likely be to find a trade for Sheary, which he’d likely need to waive his 16-team no-trade list to make happen.

The Lightning can reduce Sheary’s cap hit from $2MM to $850K by stashing him in the minors.

Devils To Activate Luke Hughes, Brett Pesce

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Oct. 24: Hughes and Pesce will make their season debuts tonight against the Red Wings, head coach Sheldon Keefe confirmed today (via Spaulding). They’ll need to be activated from injured reserve, but with two open roster spots, no corresponding transaction will be necessary.

Oct. 23: The New Jersey Devils could be getting a major boost on the blue line before their matchup tomorrow night against the Detroit Red Wings. Bill Spaulding of MSG Networks confirmed earlier that defensemen Luke Hughes and Brett Pesce will travel with the team to Detroit but couldn’t commit to either player participating tomorrow night.

It would seem that the Devils organization is leaning toward both players participating in tomorrow night’s action, as Detroit represents the only road game for the week. The Devils return to Newark as soon as Friday, meaning Hughes and Pesce should suit up against the New York Islanders or Anaheim Ducks by the end of the weekend.

It’ll be a major addition to a lineup that’s had a solid start to the campaign. New Jersey currently sits ninth in the league in GF/G at 3.56 and 17th in GA/G at 3.11. Pesce should help in the latter category with a career 51.2 CF% and 90.6% on-ice save percentage in all situations.

Neither defenseman has participated in a regular-season contest up to this point in the year, with Hughes recovering from offseason shoulder surgery and Pesce making his way back from leg surgery to repair a fibula fracture. New Jersey’s overall play in the defensive zone up to this point is largely a testament to the depth they added this past offseason.

This leads to the question of which defensemen will ultimately exit the lineup once Hughes and Pesce return. Rookie newcomer Daniil Misyul is an obvious candidate for reassignment for Hughes, but the Devils have a much more difficult question on the right side.

Before the start of the season, Johnathan Kovacevic would have been the likeliest candidate to become the team’s seventh defenseman. Instead, he’s been the Devils highest-scoring defenseman to start the season with one goal and five points in nine games while averaging 21:34 minutes a night.

Putting stalwart Dougie Hamilton aside, this leaves youngster Simon Nemec as the likeliest candidate for the Devils’ seventh defenseman role. The former second-overall pick of the 2022 NHL Draft only has one assist through nine games to start the year and has been largely sheltered with a 16:07 average ice time. Coupled with Nemec’s poor possession metrics to start the year — the Devils could use Pesce or Hughes’s return as a wake-up call to their young blue-liner.

Anthony Duclair To Miss 4-6 Weeks With Leg Injury

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Oct. 24: The Islanders have received what’s likely the best-case scenario regarding Duclair’s injury. It’s indeed not season-ending and will only cost him the next four to six weeks, the team announced. That puts his absence around 13 to 20 games, not including time he’s already missed. He should return between Nov. 21 and Dec. 5.

Oct. 21: Islanders general manager Lou Lamoriello told reporters today that winger Anthony Duclair is facing a long-term absence after sustaining an apparent left leg injury Saturday against the Canadiens (via Andrew Gross of Newsday). Lamoriello estimates it won’t be a season-ending absence, but they’ll have a more specific timeline tomorrow after further testing.

Duclair, 29, now has to hit pause on his fresh start on Long Island after negotiating himself a four-year, $14MM deal in free agency over the summer. He was expected to be an impact piece for a lagging Islanders offense and appeared to fit the bill early on, logging top-line minutes with Mathew Barzal and Bo Horvat. He posted two goals and an assist in five games while posting dominant possession metrics – the trio controlled 64.6% of expected goals together, per MoneyPuck.

He’s occasionally been a standout secondary goal-scorer without being much of a defensive liability, if at all. He’s historically posted slightly above-average possession metrics, but injuries and plain old consistency issues have led to wildly different year-to-year point totals. The Quebec native showed his ability to flourish in top-six usage as recently as the 2021-22 campaign when he had a career-high 31 goals and 58 points in 74 games for the Panthers.

But Duclair tore his Achilles tendon while training the following offseason, keeping him out for the vast majority of 2022-23. He wasn’t terribly effective after returning to play down the stretch, scoring only twice in 20 appearances. He’s flipped teams twice since then, first traded to the Sharks in a cap-dump deal over the 2023 offseason and again to the Lightning as a deadline rental last season.

Duclair did the best he could on a severely undermanned Sharks offense, posting 16 goals and 27 points in 56 games before the trade. He ended the campaign on a tear in Tampa, though, scoring eight times and adding seven assists in 17 games while playing the top-line complementary role that yielded so much success from him in South Florida. The Islanders were hoping to get a similar rate of production out of him while placing him with their star forwards, but instead, they’ll lose his services for a significant portion of the first year of his contract.

For now, the outlook for this year’s Islanders becomes dicey. They’ve again struggled to score out of the gate, ranking 26th in the league with 2.60 GF/GP. Missing Duclair for an extended period certainly won’t do anything to improve that. But the Isles’ possession play at even strength has been strong, and they’re getting stellar goaltending from Ilya Sorokin (.953 SV% in 2 GP). That’s a familiar recipe that’s gotten them to the postseason in recent years, even with a subpar offense.

Lamoriello said the Islanders will add a forward on a call-up from AHL Bridgeport later in the coming days to replace Duclair on the roster. Julien Gauthier, who’s on waivers, won’t be staying on the roster with today’s news. It’s a performance-based demotion that will see him head to Bridgeport if he doesn’t get claimed. He also said that veteran enforcer Matt Martin, who remains on a PTO, isn’t a candidate for a contract at this time. Someone already in the organization will get the call.

In terms of who replaces Duclair’s minutes alongside Barzal and Horvat, today’s line rushes indicated it’ll be Simon Holmström (via Stefen Rosner of NHL.com). The 2019 first-round pick has two assists and a +1 rating in five appearances this season while averaging 13:32 per game, seeing most of his time at right wing alongside Anders Lee and Jean-Gabriel Pageau.

Jeff Vinik No Longer Majority Owner Of Lightning

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The NHL’s Board of Governors approved a partial sale of the Lightning from majority owner Jeff Vinik to a group of investors led by Doug Ostrover and Marc Lipschultz, the team announced today. The sale was approved on Oct. 1, one week before the regular season began. David Pagnotta of The Fourth Period reports that Ostrover and Lipschultz’s group have become majority owners of the franchise by a slight margin with the transaction, which valued the Lightning at $1.8B.

Back in August, Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet reported that Ostrover’s group was working on acquiring a majority stake. However, that’s not where discussions between him and Vinik Sports Group began earlier this year, Pagnotta said. It’s an incredible return on investment for Vinik, who purchased the franchise in 2010 at a paltry $93MM valuation (per Pagnotta) – a 21.4% rate of return over 14 years.

Per the details of the agreement made public by the Lightning, Vinik will retain full control over the team’s hockey operations department and continue serving as team governor for the next three years. That control will transfer to Ostrover and Lipschutz in 2027. According to the team, Vinik still plans on remaining with the organization as a minority owner, alternate governor, and board of directors member.

Under Vinik’s ownership, the Lightning had their most extended period of success. They’d won a championship before, defeating the Flames in the 2004 Stanley Cup Final, but weren’t a consistent championship contender from year to year. But in Vinik’s 14 full seasons as majority owner, Tampa made the playoffs 11 times, won the Stanley Cup twice (2020, 2021), and advanced to at least the Eastern Conference Final seven times total, including their Cup wins and two Stanley Cup Final losses (2015, 2022).

Ostrover and Lipschutz are founders of Blue Owl Capital, an alternative investment asset management company. The team said they were connected with Vinik through their relationship with Lightning minority ownership firm Arctos.

Maple Leafs Activate Joseph Woll From Injured Reserve

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The Maple Leafs announced they’ve activated goaltender Joseph Woll from injured reserve. Netminder Dennis Hildeby was returned to AHL Toronto from his emergency loan in a corresponding transaction to open a roster spot.

There’s a chance Woll will make his season debut and start tonight against his hometown Blues, per TSN’s Darren Dreger. Even if not, he’ll dress as the backup to Anthony Stolarz, who initially signed with Toronto in free agency to be a 1B option behind Woll but has stolen the show thus far with a .938 SV% and 1.83 GAA through five games.

Woll, 26, spent the first couple of weeks of the regular season on the shelf due to what head coach Craig Berube called “lower-body tightness.” He was on Toronto’s opening night roster but landed on IR hours before their season opener against the Canadiens on Oct. 9. The netminder spent over a week off the ice before returning to practice last Friday.

A third-round pick of the Leafs back in 2016, Woll was a full-time NHL option for the first time last season. A high ankle sprain cost him nearly three months in the middle of the season and limited him to 25 appearances in what amounted to a three-goalie rotation with Martin Jones and Ilya Samsonov, neither of whom are still in the organization. He churned out slightly above-average numbers, logging a .907 SV%, 2.94 GAA, and 2.6 GSAA with a 12-11-1 record.

That showing, plus a sublime .964 SV% and 0.86 GAA in nearly 140 minutes of postseason action in Toronto’s first-round loss to the Bruins, earned him a three-year, $11MM contract extension over the summer that goes into effect for the 2025-26 season. This year, he still costs just $766.7K against the salary cap as part of a three-year, $2.3MM deal he signed back in 2022.

Assuming he can stay healthy for the rest of the campaign, he’ll surely eclipse the career-high 23 starts and 25 appearances he set last season. Whether he takes the lion’s share of the starts the rest of the way is another question entirely, given how well Stolarz has started the campaign, but it would be surprising to see the Leafs deviate too far away from a 50/50 split between the pipes the rest of the way.

For the 23-year-old Hildeby, his NHL debut was a mixed showing. The 2022 fourth-round pick had been on emergency call-ups at some points last season but never got into a game. Now the No. 3 option behind Stolarz and Woll after outplaying veteran Matt Murray during training camp, he was called up as soon as Woll landed on IR. He made two starts while backing up Stolarz to begin the season, looking excellent in his debut against the Devils in Toronto’s second game. But after making 21 saves on 23 shots in his debut, the Swede gave up six goals on 38 shots against the Blue Jackets in a 6-2 loss on Tuesday.

Hildeby now returns to the Marlies, where he posted a .913 SV%, 2.41 GAA, 21-11-7 record, and four shutouts in 41 games last season. It was his first in North America after spending his entire development in his native Sweden. The 6’7″, 223-lb netminder earned an All-Star Game nod for those strong numbers.

Blackhawks, Predators Looking To Add Middle-Six Center

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The Blackhawks and Predators are among the teams looking to add an impact piece down the middle to aid their second and third forward lines, writes Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet.

Unluckily for them, it’s a quiet trade market, as acknowledged by Nashville general manager Barry Trotz on 102.5 FM The Game recently. “No one is trading anyone right now,” Trotz said, Friedman relayed. They’re also not the only game in town. Earlier this week, Flames GM Craig Conroy spoke to Sportsnet’s Eric Francis and acknowledged/confirmed a report from Daily Faceoff’s Frank Seravalli that he’s looking to give his upstart Calgary club a boost down the middle.

For Nashville, the need for a No. 2 behind Ryan O’Reilly is obvious. Almost nothing has gone right for the Predators, who are last in the Central Division with a 1-5-0 record after backing up the armored truck for Jonathan Marchessault, Brady Skjei, and Steven Stamkos in free agency. But addressing what looked like the biggest hole on their roster heading into the season would likely still be a good place to start, at least once other teams start seriously considering moves.

There’s little reason to break up last year’s first line of O’Reilly, Filip Forsberg, and Gustav Nyquist, which resulted in a career year for the latter and was one of the division’s best trios. That means marquee signings Marchessault and Stamkos slot in on the wings on line two, but who to center them was always a lingering question after their July 1 additions. Currently, veteran Colton Sissons is being tasked with the role, but as a checking center, he’s grossly miscast in a top-six role. He’s also been a complete non-factor to begin the season with no points and a -8 rating in six contests, averaging under 15 minutes per game. The Preds hoped Thomas Novak might also be an option, and while he’s done more offensively with three goals in six games, he’s 11 for 30 in the faceoff dot (36.7 FOW%).

Meanwhile, the Blackhawks have deployed rotating personnel on their bottom three lines, with Connor Bedard off to a point-per-game start in his second NHL season. After playing most of last season on Bedard’s wing, Chicago wanted to move Philipp Kurashev back to the middle and cast him as their No. 2 center. It hasn’t worked out, though, as he’s already been a healthy scratch once and has just one goal and a -6 rating in six games. Andreas Athanasiou, a pending UFA, also doesn’t look like an option, with no points through five games. They have a few future options for the role internally, namely first-round picks Oliver Moore and Frank Nazar, but they’re understandably looking to take a small step forward out of their rebuild in the interim until they’re ready for that type of usage.

Avalanche Recall Chris Wagner, Reassign Calum Ritchie To OHL

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Colorado Avalanche forward Calum Ritchie still had three games to play before burning the first year of his entry-level contract but the organization has opted to make its move prematurely. The Avalanche announced they reassigned Ritchie to the OHL’s Oshawa Generals and recalled forward Chris Wagner in a corresponding roster move.

Ritchie’s first seven games of his NHL career were somewhat of a mixed bag. He scored one goal in his first three contests while averaging 14:47 of ice time per game but didn’t have much to offer in the following four appearances. His ice time began dropping in Colorado’s loss to the Boston Bruins on October 16th and finished with just over seven minutes in last night’s win over the Seattle Kraken.

He primarily played on a line with Casey Mittelstadt and fellow rookie Nikolai Kovalenko as the trio collected five games together. The group finished with a net zero rating in x Goals For per 60 minutes and x Goals Against per 60 minutes according to MoneyPuck which is fair production from a line carrying two rookies.

Ritchie will continue his season on a Generals team including 2024 NHL Draft standouts Beckett Sennecke and Luca Marrelli. All signs indicate Ritchie will crack Team Canada’s U20 Roster for the 2024 IIHF World Junior Championships and help the Generals expand upon their 5-5-1 record through their first 11 contests.

Replacing Ritchie in the lineup will be Wagner who’s already managed two games with the Avalanche on the year. Colorado may not trust him with middle six minutes like Ritchie so don’t be surprised to see Ivan Ivan or Matthew Stienburg move up a line.

It’s important to note that Evan Rawal of The Denver Gazette shared earlier that Artturi Lehkonen and Jonathan Drouin could be close to a return giving more context to the early roster move for Ritchie. Both would represent immediate placements in the team’s top six giving Ritchie access to much less ice time than he started the campaign with.

Atlantic Notes: McCabe, Pacioretty, Benson

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Mitch Marner and John Tavares project as the two most high-profile players on the Maple Leafs roster eligible for an extension during the 2024-25 NHL season. The one seemingly closest to the finish line, however, is defenseman Jake McCabe with reports shortly before the season began indicating an extension was close between the two sides.

James Mirtle of The Athletic wrote in an article today (Subscription Required) that offered some comparables and context behind Toronto’s desire to keep McCabe around beyond this season. Mirtle highlighted Winnipeg Jets’ defenseman Dylan DeMelo as the most reasonable comparable although it’s difficult to discern a perfect one for any player. DeMelo signed a four-year, $19.6MM extension with the Jets almost a week before he was set to become an unrestricted free agent this past offseason.

If McCabe’s camp seeks a salary similar to 5.6% of the salary cap like DeMelo that would put his AAV at around $5.15MM. Since McCabe shares a desire to stay with the Maple Leafs beyond this season Toronto could manage to lower his AAV if they add a fifth year to his contract. It’s still a negotiation requiring fine-tuning with the Maple Leafs having several pending unrestricted and restricted free agents on the roster. It’s likely a situation they’ll want to avoid slow-playing less losing their third-most valuable defenseman.

Other Atlantic notes:

  • Sticking in Toronto — veteran forward Max Pacioretty left the team’s game last night with a lower-body injury in the second period and never returned to action. There doesn’t appear to be any long-term concern for the injury nor any indication it’s connected to his past Achilles injuries shares Nick Alberga of TheLeafsNation. It should only keep him off the ice for the next few days likely making him an option for the team’s game tomorrow night against the St. Louis Blues.
  • The Buffalo Sabres returned to practice this morning after a big win against the Dallas Stars but were still absent Zach Benson who’s been dealing with a mysterious ailment (X Link). Reports indicate Benson is nursing a lower-body injury suffered during the organization’s trip to Prague to kick off the regular season but the Sabres have been vague about his status up to this point. The ailment appears to have affected his play on the ice with Benson going scoreless through his first six contests while averaging just over 14 minutes of ice time per game.

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