Marcus Johansson Signs In Sweden
Longtime NHL forward Marcus Johansson has signed with Färjestad BK of the SHL, the team announced today, departing the Minnesota Wild. The news was confirmed by Michael Russo of The Athletic.
One decade since his breakout 24 goal campaign, the 35-year-old has bounced around several teams since then as a moderate contributor. Still, he had become a valuable piece for Minnesota over the past four seasons, somewhat quietly putting together a strong 2025-26 where he notched 49 points in 75 games. That output is good for his second best in 16 seasons.
By no means walking away from North America due to his ability at the NHL level, the development is a bit surprising. Although speculation, it suggests that the Wild’s offseason priorities align elsewhere, with the veteran opting to return to his native country on a high note, rather than start over on what could have become his seventh NHL club.
Chosen 24th overall by the Capitals in the 2009 draft, Johansson’s 1,058 regular season NHL appearances stand as ninth best of the class, also ranking tenth among such peers in points (566).
A name synonymous with Washington throughout recent memory, he was dealt to New Jersey during the 2017 offseason, unfortunately missing out on their Stanley Cup the following spring. One of those selections became Martin Fehérváry, a minute-eating shutdown defender who remains a key piece of the Capitals today.
Unable to replicate his breakout 58 point campaign in Newark, the forward was on the move again at the trade deadline, off to Boston where he found his stride as a key third liner. The winger posted 11 points on the Bruins’ playoff run, highlighted by his game-winning goal in the deciding first round series versus Toronto, as they went all the way to Game 7 of the Finals before falling to St. Louis.
Cashing in from his playoff efforts, Johansson inked a two-year contract with Buffalo worth $4.5MM per season. Only making it through one year with the Sabres, where he put up 30 points in 60 games, the next fall he was on the move again. Traded to the Wild for Eric Staal, it was a deal with salary in mind, and finding a fresh start for each veteran. He didn’t make much of an impact with Minnesota, moving on after 14 points in 36 games and signing a one year contract with the expansion Seattle Kraken for $1.5 million. Nobody then would have guessed that he’d ever have more to offer in the state of hockey years later.
Becoming a journeyman, he was traded by Seattle back to Washington at the 2022 trade deadline, but his Caps were sent packing by Florida in six games. The Capitals weren’t the only team intent on a reunion, as that summer he signed back with the Wild, where he’s been ever since. Johansson excelled on a line with Matt Boldy, keeping up his strong regular season play with three tallies against Colorado in the second round.
Affectionately known by fans as “MoJo”, Johansson was traded in-season three times during his career, a player always having value as a middle-six forward. At the same time, all the changes likely played a part in his decision to seek stability back home. It serves as a return to his original club, as a member of Färjestad from 2008-10, winning a league championship in 2009 before embarking on his long NHL career.
Johansson also represented his nation on the highest international stage, a member of Team Sweden in the Olympic Games both in 2014 and this past February. He took home silver 12 years ago, while skating in two games for the Swedes in Milan, coming away scoreless.
Coming back to his original Swedish club, Johansson will mentor Flyers prospect Jack Berglund, joining former NHLers such as Radim Zohorna and Victor Ejdsell. It’s rare that a player of his caliber enters the league at this point, and Johansson should immediately be a top SHL scorer, challenging the likes of Skelleftea forward Oscar Lindberg, another player with NHL experience who took the honors this year with 67 points in 52 games. Färjestad finished fifth in the league this season, sent packing by Rogle in the quarterfinals, and the addition of a forward who was getting second line minutes in the Stanley Cup Playoffs just last month will have huge implications for their club.
Meanwhile, assuming this is it for Johansson in the NHL, the Swede put together one of the best careers out of 2009 draftees, and opened the scoring of Game 5 against the Avalanche, in what was likely his last NHL contest.
Image Credit: Geoff Burke-Imagn Images
Islanders Sign Marshall Warren To One-Year Extension
The New York Islanders have announced that defenseman Marshall Warren has signed a one-year, two-way contract extension with the club. The financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
The 25-year-old Long Island native was set to become a restricted free agent with arbitration rights. The two-year entry-level contract Warren signed in April 2024 was set to expire July 1, and the Islanders had to decide whether they wanted to retain Warren in their organization moving forward. Notably, Warren was an addition made by former GM Lou Lamoriello, meaning he does not have any ties to new GM Mathieu Darche.
That Darche has elected to commit to Warren for another season suggests they likely still see a path for him to have an NHL career, or at least serve as high-level depth.
The 5’11”, 195-pound left-shot defenseman has played two full years of professional hockey. He was a four-year NCAA player at Boston College before becoming a graduate transfer for the Michigan Wolverines. As an AHL rookie, Warren was able to hold onto a regular lineup spot and score 17 points in 53 games for the AHL’s weakest team.
Warren took a sizable step forward in 2025-26, scoring 32 points in 56 games for Bridgeport while advancing into a top-four role with significant responsibilities on the penalty kill. His improvements at the AHL level cleared the way for him to make his NHL debut, and Warren ended up skating in eight games for the Islanders, scoring three points.
In both years of his entry-level contract Warren received a $50K signing bonus and a league-minimum $775K NHL salary. He had an AHL salary of $70K in 2023-24, and $75K in 2024-25.
While the financial terms of this contract have not yet been reported, it’s likely that Warren’s extension will contain a similar league-minimum NHL salary (now at $850K for 2026-27). One would have to imagine, given the growth that Warren showed last season, he will have earned a raise at the AHL level beyond the $70K range he was in for his entry-level contract.
Canadiens’ Cole Caufield Wins Lady Byng Memorial Trophy
A second member of the Montreal Canadiens’ first line has won an NHL award today. The league announced that Cole Caufield has been voted the winner of the Lady Byng Memorial Trophy, which is presented annually to the player who exhibits a high standard of sportsmanship, gentlemanly conduct, and playing ability.
In April, Caufield was named a finalist for the award alongside Los Angeles Kings center Anže Kopitar and Ottawa Senators defenseman Jake Sanderson. He collected 45 first-place votes from the Professional Hockey Writers Association, and 776 points. Kopitar, who finished second, collected 38 first-place votes and 602 points. Kopitar, who is now retired, is a three-time winner of the Trophy, while Sanderson has not won it but has received votes twice before in his career.
Caufield is the first Canadien to win the Lady Byng since Swedish forward Mats Naslund took home the award in 1988. The only other Canadien to win the Trophy is Hockey Hall of Fame inductee Toe Blake.
The 2019 first-round pick does have some other connections to past winners of the award, both of whom were immensely skilled and productive scoring wingers despite lacking prototypical NHL size.
Caufield’s coach Martin St. Louis won the Lady Byng in 2014, and has overseen Caufield’s development into one of the league’s premier goal scorers.
Caufield was also a former international teammate and close friend of the late Johnny Gaudreau, who won the award in 2017. Caufield called Gaudreau his “hero” and changed his jersey number from 22 to 13 in September 2024 to honor Gaudreau’s memory. Now, he joins Gaudreau as a winner of the Lady Byng.
Although the Lady Byng is an award with criteria for winning that is inherently subjective, it’s difficult to argue that Caufield is not an eminently deserving winner. The 25-year-old has always been a lethal goal scorer, dating back to his days at the U.S. National Team Development Program, and never was that more apparent than his second and final season playing college hockey, when he scored 30 goals in 31 games and won the Hobey Baker Award.
But after he underwent season-ending shoulder surgery during the 2022-23 campaign, there was some worry that the shoulder issues might keep him from ever reaching such heights as a goal scorer at the NHL level. In the season following his injury, Caufield scored just 28 goals – a respectable total, but far from fulfilling the lofty expectations placed on him. The following season, though, Caufield began reminding the league why he was such a highly-rated goal-scoring prospect. He potted a career-high 37 goals in 2024-25, setting up his career year in 2025-26.
Caufield finished the 2025-26 season with 51 goals, falling short of the Maurice “Rocket” Richard Trophy by just two tallies. But Caufield did score more goals against a goalie than MacKinnon, who led the league with eight empty-net goals. So while he did not finish the season with a Rocket Richard Trophy, he has not left 2025-26 empty-handed. He became the first Canadiens forward to score 50 goals since 1990, joining an illustrious group of players including Hall of Fame inductees Guy Lafleur, Bernie “Boom Boom” Geoffrion, Steve Shutt, and Richard.
He was able to reach those heights as a goal scorer (and playmaker, finishing with 37 assists and 88 total points) while maintaining a play style that falls in line with the spirit of the award. Caufield finished the season with just 14 penalty minutes, and has not reached even 18 penalty minutes in a single regular season for the entirety of his career. He finished 2025-26 with the most goals, and second-most points (behind Winnipeg Jets winger Kyle Connor) of any player registering fewer than 20 penalty minutes.
Photos courtesy of Stan Szeto-Imagn Images
Canadiens’ Nick Suzuki Wins Frank J. Selke Trophy
Montreal Canadiens captain Nick Suzuki has won the 2025-26 Frank J. Selke Trophy as the NHL forward who “best excels in the defensive aspects of the game,” the league announced today.
Suzuki beat out fellow finalists Brock Nelson of the Colorado Avalanche, and Anthony Cirelli of the Tampa Bay Lightning. Suzuki earned the trophy in a landslide, per the voting conducted by the Professional Hockey Writers Association. He earned 151 first-place votes and 1,726 total points. Cirelli, who placed second, received 10 first-place votes and 467 points.
The Canadiens captain is a first-time finalist for the Selke Trophy, but finished 13th in voting in each of the prior two campaigns.
The trophy was won by Florida Panthers captain Aleksander Barkov in both 2023-24 and 2024-25, though Barkov missed the 2025-26 season with an injury.
With today’s news, Suzuki has become just the third Canadiens player to take home the Selke Trophy. The other two Canadiens forwards to win the award – Bob Gainey and Guy Carbonneau – are both enshrined in the Hockey Hall of Fame.
Suzuki, 26, is one of the game’s most valuable all-around centers. For years, he has drawn comparisons to legendary Boston Bruins center Patrice Bergeron, who is himself a six-time Selke Trophy winner. This past season, Suzuki lived up to those comparisons.
He set a career-high in terms of offensive production, leading a young, ascendant Canadiens team in scoring with 29 goals, 72 assists, and 101 points. He became the first Canadiens forward to reach 100 points in a season since Mats Naslund had 110 points in 1985-86.
Suzuki was able to reach those new heights offensively while redoubling his commitment to the defensive side of the game. Centering the Canadiens’ first line alongside sniper Cole Caufield and blossoming star Juraj Slafkovsky, Suzuki often had to endure being matched up against the top lines of opposing teams. But despite that challenging environment, Suzuki was able to consistently win his minutes on the ice and lead the Canadiens to a stellar regular-season finish.
While it is somewhat unconventional for a player to win the Selke Trophy playing more of a reserve role on the penalty kill (Suzuki is not a leader in the Canadiens’ short-handed rotation), his lack of a leading role is more a credit to the number of specialist defensive centers the Canadiens have (Phillip Danault, Jake Evans) than any kind of statement on his defensive quality.
In fact, Suzuki’s defensive quality has not been a matter of intense debate. Dating back to the start of the season, Suzuki consistently polled as the favorite to win the Selke. He led in the polling for the award conducted by ESPN’s Greg Wyshynski for five straight months, suggesting that voters took to the spirit of the award, which is to recognize the whole of a player’s two-way contributions.
Morning Notes: Leach, Merkley, Gross
On Sunday, we covered reports indicating that former Boston Bruins and Seattle Kraken assistant coach Jay Leach was a strong candidate for two head coaching vacancies in the AHL: the Hartford Wolf Pack (New York Rangers) and Belleville Senators (Ottawa Senators). Yesterday, David Pagnotta of The Fourth Period reported that “all signs point” to Leach becoming head coach in Hartford, with the official announcement from the team coming soon after.
If he ends up hired by the Rangers to coach their AHL affiliate, Leach, 46, would bring instant credibility to the team’s coaching staff. Leach was previously a head coach in the AHL for the Providence Bruins from 2017-18 through 2020-21, amassing an impressive 136-77-26 record. Most crucially for the Rangers, whose player development at the pro level has come under recent scrutiny (the team moved on from director of player development Jed Ortmeyer last month), Leach has a strong track record of delivering AHL talent to the NHL level. During his time in Providence, he helped develop future NHL players such as Jeremy Lauzon, Trent Frederic, Connor Clifton, Dan Vladar, Jordan Binnington, Matt Grzelcyk, and Urho Vaakanainen.
Other notes from around the hockey world:
- 2015 first-round pick Nick Merkley has decided to leave the KHL’s Shanghai Dragons, signing a one-year contract with Dynamo Moscow. Merkley, 29, last played in North America in the 2021-22 season, a year where he got into nine NHL contests for the San Jose Sharks. Merkley has spent the last four seasons in the KHL, where he has been a productive top-six forward. He led the Dragons in scoring in 2025-26, putting up 24 goals and 45 points.
- Veteran defenseman Jordan Gross, who was formerly a solid depth defenseman in NHL organizations, has signed a two-year KHL contract with Avtomobilist Yekaterinburg. The 31-year-old blueliner is an undrafted player who leveraged a stellar NCAA career at Notre Dame into 25 NHL games across four seasons. Gross is a former Eddie Shore Award winner as the AHL’s defenseman of the year, but has been in the KHL for the past two seasons. This past year, Gross scored eight goals and 35 points in 64 regular-season games for Traktor Chelyabinsk.
Devils’ Arseny Gritsyuk Seeking Multi-Year Extension
According to a report from James Nichols of New Jersey Hockey Now, New Jersey Devils winger Arseny Gritsyuk is seeking a multi-year extension with the club. Nichols added that the interest is mutual, and the two sides are progressing well toward a new contract.
It’s safe to say that Gritsyuk’s first year with the Devils went well. New Jersey drafted Gritsyuk with the 129th overall pick of the 2019 NHL Draft, but had to wait a few years for him to play with the team, as he spent multiple seasons in the KHL. In his final KHL season, he had a solid performance, scoring 17 goals and earning 44 points in 49 games, while boasting a +22 rating with SKA St. Petersburg.
Entering the 2025-26 season, New Jersey had a significant need for additional scoring depth, which made the decision to bring Gritsyuk over to North America a relatively easy one. Additionally, his one-year, $925K contract made it a low-risk option for the Devils.
Despite some injury concerns, Gritsyuk provided the secondary scoring the Devils needed this season. In 66 games, the Krasnoyarsk, Russia native scored 13 goals and 31 points while averaging 15:10 of ice time per game. It wasn’t enough to turn New Jersey into a competitive team, but it was enough to finish eighth on the team in scoring.
The biggest concern with Gritsyuk’s play is his work on the defensive side of the puck. He finished with the highest CorsiFor on the team, but his defensive metrics were toward the bottom. That shows New Jersey controls the shot attempts more when he’s on the ice, but he doesn’t do much to stop the opposition from getting high-danger chances.
Still, the Devils’ lack of production in their middle-six is so severe that the front office is likely willing to overlook his defensive shortcomings if he continues to produce the way he did. If Gritsyuk can get to the 40-point mark consistently while being on New Jersey’s third line, it makes the extension an easy decision.
Assessing The Oilers Options For Tristan Jarry
Heading into the summer of 2025, many hockey pundits and commentators were discussing the Pittsburgh Penguins’ options for goaltender Tristan Jarry. For his part, Jarry had just cleared waivers in early 2025, and it appeared the Penguins would be boxed into the remaining three years of his contract, which carried a $5.375MM cap hit. He seemed unmovable, and the Penguins were more than willing to move him, offering him to the entire league for nothing on multiple occasions. This wasn’t the first season in which the chatter around Jarry was negative, as the sentiment to move him was the same at the start of the 2024-25 season. Now, the Jarry problem has become an Edmonton Oilers problem after the team paid a premium in December for a trade that was disastrous, to put it generously. The Oilers need better goaltending, but they have a massive black cloud in Jarry’s contract, which remains nearly unmovable. The team needs to find a path forward for Jarry, but their options are limited.
The first option is a buyout, which, according to PuckPedia, would save Edmonton $666,667 this season and $1,166,667 next season, followed by a $458K cap penalty over the next two seasons. Effectively, the Oilers would still carry a $4.7MM cap hit this year and a $4.2MM cap hit next season, making a buyout a silly proposition and one Edmonton is unlikely to use.
The team would be better served by simply burying Jarry in the AHL for the season, which would provide more relief. The formula next season would be the NHL league minimum ($850K) plus $375K, resulting in $1.225MM in cap relief for the Oilers, a better number than a buyout, which would carry an additional two years of cap penalty. Pittsburgh used this tactic on multiple occasions, with Jarry playing 12 AHL games during the 2024-25 season.
Then there is the trade option, which at this point doesn’t look like an option at all. Stranger things have happened, and no one expected Jarry to be moved this past year. Jarry started last season fairly well in Pittsburgh, giving the Penguins 14 games of above-average goaltending before GM Kyle Dubas leveraged that to send Jarry to the Oilers in a trade. Edmonton sent Stuart Skinner, Brett Kulak and a 2029 second-round draft pick back to Pittsburgh in return for the 31-year-old Jarry in what was a heavility criticized transaction from the Oilers perspective. There isn’t a trade like that out there for the Oilers, and even if Jarry were to start hot again this season, too many teams have seen this movie before, as it’s been common for Jarry to start seasons well and end them poorly. After all, Jarry is a two-time all-star and has even garnered Vezina Trophy talk in some seasons prior to the Christmas break, but it’s almost an annual occurrence for him to fall apart in the second half, which is alarming to put it mildly.
If Edmonton wants to trade for Jarry, it will need to pursue one of two strategies. It will either need to move Jarry for an equally undesirable contract, of which there are a lot, or attach assets to Jarry and move him in a trade package, similar to the way the Dallas Stars traded defenseman Matt Dumba to Pittsburgh last summer. The Penguins received a second-round pick for their troubles, a steep price for Dallas to pay to rid itself of one season of Dumba’s $3.75MM cap hit. In another transaction the year prior, the Blues paid Pittsburgh a second-round pick to take on the final two years of forward Kevin Hayes’s contract, which carried a cap hit of $3.571MM.
Now, the salary cap environment has changed dramatically in recent seasons, meaning that teams have more cap space and more teams might be willing to take on a contract like Jarry’s, which could bring the price down. However, one of the teams with ample cap space is Pittsburgh, and they probably aren’t keen to bring him back into the fold, even if they are compensated to do so. Jarry also has a 12-team no-trade list, which will further complicate things, but it does leave 18 teams available to work with if Edmonton is willing to part with some assets to move him. Jarry makes quite a chunk of money for a player who might not be NHL caliber anymore, meaning that if Edmonton wants to dump his contract, they might have to pay a second-round pick or more. There is also the issue of Edmonton’s desperation, which could drive the price even higher if they paint themselves into a corner and have no choice but to get him off their books.
The other strategy mentioned earlier might be the best for the Oilers: trading Jarry for another bad NHL contract. Would Pittsburgh consider taking back Jarry if it meant they could send Ryan Graves to Edmonton? Unlikely, but there are plenty of Graves-type contracts around the league, and plenty of teams motivated to get out from under them.
An option could be to move Columbus netminder Elvis Merzlikins, who has one year left on his deal and a cap hit near Jarry’s ($5.4MM). Merzlikins hasn’t been an average goaltender for nearly five years and was below average again this year, posting a -7.3 goals saved above expected (as per MoneyPuck). Acquiring him would shorten the window during which Edmonton is on the hook for a high-priced, below-average goaltender, although Columbus might ask for a small asset to take on the extra year on Jarry’s contract.
There is also a possibility that Jarry is packaged with another bad contract on the Oilers, such as Trent Frederic or Darnell Nurse, to facilitate a swap for a higher-priced bad contract from another team. At some point, one of those swaps is going to take place, given the sheer volume of NHL teams carrying high-priced, bonus-laden, unmovable contracts.
Submit Your Questions For The #PHRMailbag
The calendar has turned to June and only two teams remain in the playoffs, Carolina and Vegas. Beyond them, everyone else is in full offseason planning mode. The draft is less than four weeks away and free agency right on the horizon after that. With that in mind, it’s a good time to open up the mailbag once again.
Our last call for questions yielded enough queries to fill three columns. Topics in the first included the Draft Lottery, possible fits for a Connor Hellebuyck trade, and impressive late-season rookie performances. In the second, there were questions about Winnipeg’s second-line center situation, Chicago’s goaltending situation, and the President’s Trophy ‘curse’. Meanwhile, in the third, topics included an ideal offseason for the Rangers, a Robert Thomas to Detroit trade scenario, and trying to find data to support the challenges presented offensively for teams in back-to-back games.
You can submit a question by using #PHRMailbag on Twitter/X or by leaving a comment down below. The mailbag will run on the weekend.
Canadiens Nearly Acquired Matthew Knies At Deadline
Around the trade deadline, it was reported that the Montreal Canadiens had completed a significant trade with an unidentified team; however, the other team was unable to file the trade by the 3 pm ET deadline. According to David Pagnotta of The Fourth Period, the trade partner is now known, with the outlet reporting the Canadiens and Maple Leafs had agreed to a trade for Matthew Knies back in March.
Pagnotta had the details on the proposed return package, too. The Canadiens were prepared to send Alexander Zharovsky, who recently won Rookie of the Year in the KHL, another top prospect, and two first-round selections to the Maple Leafs. It has been confirmed that neither Michael Hage nor David Reinbacher was the other prospect in the deal.
Had the trade been completed, it would have sent ripples around the league. For one, although he had been involved in trade rumors leading up to the deadline, it’s relatively shocking that the Maple Leafs would actually entertain trading Knies, and not building around him. He’s only 23 years old, is signed long-term, and has had two consecutive productive years with Toronto.
Furthermore, given Montreal’s lack of scoring depth became their Achilles heel in the Eastern Conference Final, Knies certainly would have changed their outlook. The Canadiens boast one of the best first lines in the league; however, their lack of a strong second line turned them into a one-dimensional team, and the Hurricanes dispatched them easily.
Having Knies, a young winger who has scored 52 goals and recorded 124 points in 157 games for the Maple Leafs over the past two years, would have provided Montreal with a significant asset to place alongside Ivan Demidov. Additionally, Knies was relatively productive in Toronto’s playoff run last year, scoring five goals and seven points in 13 games, while also delivering 31 hits.
While trade talks may potentially resume this summer, it is unlikely that they will do so. Brad Treliving, the Maple Leafs’ General Manager at the time, agreed to that trade. The Maple Leafs have since transitioned to a different regime under John Chayka.
Chayka has a mandate to keep captain Auston Matthews happy, or risk him asking for a trade out of town if Chayka can’t turn the team around. Trading Knies away for futures wouldn’t be conducive to that goal.
While it’s unlikely that the Canadiens will be able to pursue Knies this summer, it is clear that the team intends to be aggressive in reaching their next competitive stage. Given that they’re willing to trade with divisional opponents, Montreal may already be in touch with the Detroit Red Wings about their captain, Dylan Larkin, who requested a trade from the team earlier today.
Photo courtesy of John E. Sokolowski of Imagn Images.
Flyers Sign Jacob Gaucher To One-Year Contract
According to a report from PuckPedia, the Philadelphia Flyers have signed forward Jacob Gaucher to a one-year, $850K contract for the 2026-27 season. Gaucher was scheduled to become a restricted free agent this summer with arbitration rights.
Gaucher, 25, was signed as an undrafted free agent by the Flyers back in 2024. The Longueuil, Quebec native spent most of his QMJHL days with the Val-d’Or Foreurs before spending his final season with the Baie-Comeau Drakkar while also serving as the team’s captain.
Unfortunately, Gaucher didn’t produce enough in the QMJHL to warrant a draft selection. He scored 35 goals and 68 points in 66 games during his final season in 2021-22, but he already turned 21 by that point.
In fact, it wasn’t until a successful campaign in the ECHL that any team became interested in giving him an NHL contract. Before the 2022-23 season, Gaucher signed an AHL deal with the Lehigh Valley Phantoms, yet he spent the entire year with the Reading Royals, scoring 22 goals and 61 points in 71 games with a +22 rating.
After that year, the Flyers felt comfortable giving him a two-year, two-way contract, but he’s still spent much of his time in the AHL since. He’s been a solid secondary scorer, registering 48 goals and 90 points in 198 games with the Phantoms, but has zero points to show for in eight NHL contests with the Flyers.
His next contract should offer him a similar role. The Phantoms didn’t have the best season, finishing four points shy of a spot in the Calder Cup playoffs, but Gaucher finished fourth on the team in scoring, and the organization likely has an interest in retaining the handful of players that performed well this season.