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Colorado Eagles Hire Dan Hinote As Associate Coach

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After Steve Konowalchuk left this summer to become the next head coach of the Springfield Thunderbirds, the AHL’s Colorado Eagles had a position to fill as associate coach. The team has found their man from the NHL ranks as the team announced they have hired Dan Hinote.

Hinote is a veteran of nine years in the NHL from 1999 to 2009 with six of those years coming with the Colorado Avalanche. The former player was a reliable bottom-six player for the Avalanche and the St. Louis Blues throughout his career and helped Colorado win the Stanley Cup in 2001. Hinote played one year for MODO Hockey in the Elitserien before becoming an assistant coach with the Columbus Blue Jackets for the 2010-11 NHL season.

The Blue Jackets struggled mightily during Hinote’s tenure as an assistant coach as the team finished outside the playoff picture in their last days of residing in the Western Conference. Columbus qualified for the postseason in Hinote’s last year on the bench but was quickly eliminated in the first round by the Pittsburgh Penguins. Hinote was transitioned to a professional scout with the Blue Jackets organization until the 2018-19 season.

Over the next two years, Hinote worked with the US National Team Development Program in Plymouth, MI as an associate coach and also worked with the Team USA U18 in the 2019 World Junior Championship and the Team USA U17 in the 2020 World Junior Championship. After a successful run in the USHL and on the international stage, the Nashville Predators hired Hinote as an assistant coach ahead of the 2020-21 NHL campaign.

Hinote was in charge of a Predators’ penalty kill that had fallen towards the league basement as they finished 29th place in the NHL with a 75.58% success rate. Nashville climbed to 18th in the 2021-22 season, sixth in the 2022-23 season, before falling back to 22nd this past year. Hinote will have much more responsibility as an associate coach with the Eagles and returns to the Avalanche organization after nearly two decades away.

Poll: Which Player Will Be The Next Domino To Fall On The Trade Market?

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The NHL calendar has finally entered the ’dog days’ of the summer as activity around the league has cooled off dramatically. Most, if not all, of the needle-moving free agents are off the board and the trade market has not developed as expected up to this point. Nevertheless, there are still some players rumored to be on the block including Nikolaj Ehlers of the Winnipeg Jets, Martin Necas of the Carolina Hurricanes, and Patrik Laine of the Columbus Blue Jackets.

With how things have played out around the league, Ehlers feels like the most high-profile trade candidate to change hands this summer. The smooth-skating Dane is entering the last year of a seven-year, $42MM contract signed with the Jets in 2017 and is not expected to extend his stay in Winnipeg. Ehlers has been a reliable top-six forward for the Jets when healthy and is elite in terms of puck possession as evidenced by his career CorsiFor% of 57.6%. He has been relatively quiet in the postseason throughout his career which could give interested parties some pause. Winnipeg could still extend Ehlers as they took nearly the entire offseason last year to sign Mark Scheifele and Connor Hellebuyck to long-term contracts but the trade rumors around Ehlers appear to have more veracity.

Necas entered the summer as one of the top players on the trading block but his market has seemingly cooled over the last few weeks. The Hurricanes reportedly were not interested in signing Necas to a long-term deal but failed to find an offer to their liking during the 2024 NHL Draft. Now that Carolina has lost forwards Jake Guentzel, Teuvo Teravainen, and Stefan Noesen to free agency, the team may be more willing to retain Necas. The skilled forward has prohibited himself from being given an offer sheet this summer as he elected for salary arbitration but the Hurricanes can still trade him during that window if they find a suitable offer.

Shortly before the 2024 NHL Draft, it was reported that Laine and the Columbus Blue Jackets had mutually agreed to find a suitable trade for the player this summer. However, with Laine still in the NHLPA Player Assistance Program, the likelihood of a deal squarely rests on when he exits the program. Now that most teams have done most of their heavy lifting this summer, it will be difficult to find a trade partner to take on Laine’s $8.7MM salary for the next two years. Between 2021-2023, Laine scored 48 goals and 108 points for Columbus in 111 games but only put up nine points in 18 games for the team last year. The former second-overall pick could surely use a fresh start outside the Blue Jackets organization but his trade market may be slow to develop.

There is no guarantee that any of the listed players will be moved this offseason. Ehlers and Necas could both sign extensions with their respective teams and Laine may have a change of heart now that Columbus is making a change at head coach. Nevertheless, with the trade market being the realm from which the next big offseason move will come, which of these players do you think will get the ball rolling?

Snapshots: Prospect Rankings, Harding, Golden Knights

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Scott Wheeler of The Athletic released the summer edition of his Top 100 drafted NHL prospects rankings. Not surprisingly, Macklin Celebrini tops the list and is one of 22 players from the 2024 NHL entry draft. Philadelphia Flyers 2023 first-round pick Matvei Michkov is the second-ranked prospect just ahead of Montreal Canadiens prospect Ivan Demidov who rounded out the top 3.

Celebrini’s soon-to-be teammate Will Smith ranked eighth on the list and was the second of six San Jose Sharks prospects to make Wheeler’s top 100. The six prospects for San Jose was the most among any team alongside the Columbus Blue Jackets and Montreal Canadiens who also had six ranked prospects. The Sharks, Blue Jackets, and Canadiens are all in the midst of a rebuild and isn’t surprising to see them have the most players on the list.

In other league notes:

  • Scott Powers of The Athletic is reporting that the Chicago Blackhawks could still sign 2021 third-round pick (91st overall) Taige Harding. The unsigned defenseman has had a steady but unspectacular NCAA career at Providence College and is going into his senior year with the Friars. Powers believes that the Blackhawks would be willing to give Harding an entry-level deal and a role in the AHL if Harding is interested. The 21-year-old won’t provide much offence, but at 6’7” tall and 235 pounds he will be a presence in the Blackhawks’ defensive zone when he makes the jump to professional hockey.
  • The Vegas Golden Knights have announced that their new ECHL affiliate will be the Tahoe Knight Monsters. The multi-year affiliation agreement will start this season and will see the Knight Monsters play in Stateline, Nevada out of the Tahoe Blue Event Center. The ECHL approved the expansion franchise a year ago and the team already had six players signed for next season before the affiliation. The Knight Monsters will begin their inaugural season on October 24th against the Jacksonville Icemen.

Evening Notes: Utica, Marchenko, Pavelski

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The Utica Comets have signed defenseman Will MacKinnon and goaltender Jeremy Brodeur to one-year, one-way AHL contracts. MacKinnon has spent the bulk of his three professional seasons in the ECHL but dressed in 40 AHL games last season with the Comets, posting three goals, three assists, and a +7 rating. The 24-year-old is the son of Comets general manager Dan MacKinnon, who is also the assistant general manager of the New Jersey Devils.

Brodeur has dressed in just five AHL games across his seven-year professional career and played in one AHL game last season. He has never won an AHL game, but the 27-year-old did have a career year last year in the ECHL going 18-9-3 with a .918 save percentage and a 2.56 goals-against average. The son of NHL Hall-of-Famer Martin Brodeur might not see a lot of AHL time as the Comets have goaltenders Isaac Poulter and Nico Daws ahead of him on the depth chart.

In other evening notes:

  • Aaron Portzline of The Athletic is reporting that the Columbus Blue Jackets and forward Kirill Marchenko will go to arbitration on July 31st. It was reported earlier this week that the Jackets and the 23-year-old had discussed both a short-term and long-term contract, but at this point, it appears likely that Marchenko’s next deal could be decided by an intermediary. The 2018 second-round pick has 44 goals and 23 assists in 137 NHL games over two seasons and was reportedly looking for a long-term deal this summer.
  • Max Miller of The Hockey News is reporting that recently retired Joe Pavelski spoke with the San Jose Sharks about a potential return to the organization where he spent the first 13 years of his NHL career. The 40-year-old played 963 games for the Sharks before departing in free agency to join the Dallas Stars in July 2019. Pavelski played five seasons in Dallas and ultimately never won a Stanley Cup during his playing career, although he was a big-time playoff performer during runs to the Stanley Cup Final with San Jose and Dallas.

Colorado Avalanche Sign Kevin Mandolese

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Only one day after acquiring his signing rights from the Ottawa Senators, the Colorado Avalanche made quick work signing their new goalie. The organization announced they have signed goaltender Kevin Mandolese to a one-year contract for the 2024-25 season. Although the deal’s financial terms were not disclosed in the press release, the expectation is that it will be a two-way contract for the league minimum salary at the NHL level.

The Avalanche acquired Mandolese’s signing rights and a seventh-round pick in the 2026 NHL Draft in exchange for a sixth-round pick in 2026. The soon-to-be 24-year-old goaltender should start next season with the team’s AHL affiliate in Loveland, CO, and could even feature with the organization’s ECHL affiliate, the Utah Grizzlies.

Mandolese has spent the last four years of his career in the Senators’ organization while primarily playing for the Belleville Senators of the AHL. Serving the majority of the time as the team’s backup goaltender, Mandolese recently put together a 10-9-2 record in 23 games during the 2023-24 AHL season while collecting a .901 save percentage and 3.07 goals against average in the process. He has not featured in an NHL contest since the 2022-23 season as he procured three games with Ottawa where he secured a 1-2-0 record in three contests in addition to a .916 SV% and a 3.29 GAA.

The young netminder could earn the role of starting goaltender for the first time with the AHL’s Colorado Eagles as the Avalanche are expected to graduate Justus Annunen to the full-time backup position in the NHL. The Eagles will deploy a combination of Mandolese and Trent Miner during the 2024-25 AHL season with the former likely receiving a plethora of the starts.

Torey Krug To Potentially Miss 2024-25 Season

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The St. Louis Blues could be without defenseman Torey Krug for the entire 2024-25 regular season as the team announced they detected pre-arthritic conditions in his left ankle. Krug will spend the next six to eight weeks performing physical therapy that will likely center around pain relief, strengthening, and range-of-motion exercises to see if the joints in his ankle can stabilize enough to perform in professional hockey.

In the press release, the Blues shared that the pre-arthritic conditions stem from a fractured ankle earlier in his career. Krug has dealt with multiple injuries to his left ankle throughout his professional career as he missed time during the 2012-13 season with the Providence Bruins in January due to a sprained ankle. At the NHL level; Krug suffered an ankle injury in the second round of the 2018 Stanley Cup playoffs against the Tampa Bay Lightning before re-aggravating the injury in the last preseason game of the year heading into the 2018-19 regular season.

The organization announced that Krug will be reevaluated after physical therapy to see if surgery is necessary. If Krug needs surgery on his ankle, he will miss the 2024-25 regular season. St. Louis could then put Krug and his $6.5MM salary for next season on their long-term injured reserve.

Krug would be entering the fifth year of a seven-year, $45.5MM contract signed with the Blues organization in 2020. Coming off a solid nine-year run with the Boston Bruins; St. Louis brought in the Livonia, MI native to soften the blow of Alex Pietrangelo’s departure to the Vegas Golden Knights.

Over four years in the Blues organization Krug has scored 22 goals and 146 points in 255 regular season games. His points-per-game average is a bit depressed compared to his time with the Bruins but his goal-scoring has seen the biggest drop-off. Krug produced several double-digit goal totals during his time in the American Northeast but has failed to garner even one during his time with the Blues.

St. Louis has attempted to move on from Krug over the past two years largely due to his lack of production on the scoresheet and the fact that he has missed just over 15% of games due to injury over his four years with the organization. Krug infamously blocked a deal with the Philadelphia Flyers last offseason with his No-Trade Clause and the current injury gives context to the lack of trade talks this summer.

Krug and his contract will become more tradeable after the upcoming season as his No-Trade Clause turns into a 15-team No-Trade Clause on July 1st, 2025; but the current injury would do nothing but hurt his value on the market. For different reasons, Krug and the Blues organization will hope for a total avoidance of surgery and a healthy 2024-25 NHL season from the defenseman.

New York Islanders Re-Sign Simon Holmstrom

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The New York Islanders announced they have re-signed forward Simon Holmstrom to a one-year deal. PuckPedia reports Holmstrom has signed a one-way, $850K with the Islanders instead of accepting his qualifying offer which would have been a one-year, two-way contract of $874K.

The Islanders originally drafted Holmstrom with the 23rd overall pick in the 2019 NHL Draft and he made his debut with the organization the following season. Holmstrom suited up in 46 games for the team’s AHL affiliate, the Bridgeport Sound Tigers in the 2019-20 season and scored eight goals and 15 points in his rookie campaign. He played another 24 games with the Tigers the following year but also played in the HockeyAllsvenskan on loan and Team Sweden’s international junior team.

The 2021-22 campaign in the AHL was Holmstrom’s coming out party at the professional level as he scored 12 goals and 43 points in 68 games which was good for third on the team in scoring. Now labeled as the Bridgeport Islanders, the team made the Calder Cup playoffs for the first time during Holmstrom’s tenure and he would score three goals and four points in six postseason contests.

He made his NHL debut with the Islanders the following season but largely earned bottom-six minutes during his rookie season. Holmstrom scored six goals and nine points over 50 games while averaging 11:16 of ice time per game. The young Swede performed much better over his sophomore campaign as he entered into a middle-six role with the team’s forward core. Over 75 games played, Holmstrom scored 15 goals and 25 points while finishing sixth on the team in goals.

There is no question that New York is looking to add more offense into their lineup next season as they finished as one of only 11 teams not to average at least three goals per game during the 2023-24 regular season. While on a very reasonable contract for the next year, Holmstrom should again be used as a valuable secondary scorer for the Islanders next season.

Boston Bruins Re-Sign Marc McLaughlin

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The Boston Bruins announced they have re-signed forward Marc McLaughlin to a one-year, two-way contract for the 2024-25 NHL season. McLaughlin will earn the league minimum of $775K at the NHL level on this deal but the Bruins did not disclose his salary in the American Hockey League.

McLaughlin has spent nearly his entire life in the greater Boston area aside from a two-year stint with the Cedar Rapids Roughriders in the USHL. The young forward went undrafted during his time in the USHL and committed to Boston College in the NCAA with his freshman beginning in 2018. The North Billerica, MA native spent his entire collegiate career during the last four years of long-time Eagles coach, Jerry York.

Suiting up in 130 games for Boston College during his four-year career, McLaughlin scored 40 goals and 76 points while spending his junior and senior seasons as the team’s captain. The team finished first in their conference during McLaughlin’s sophomore and junior seasons but failed to move beyond the Regional semifinal of the Frozen Four tournament.

Since his collegiate career came to an end following the 2021-22 NCAA season, McLaughlin has spent the last three years with the Bruins organization after signing as a collegiate free agent. McLaughlin suited up in 11 games for Boston down the stretch of the 2021-22 NHL season and scored three goals in total. Since then, McLaughlin hasn’t had much of a chance in the NHL with the Bruins and has primarily played for their AHL affiliate, the Providence Bruins.

He’s produced modestly in the last three years with Providence as he’s scored 21 goals and 44 points in 135 games. However, McLaughlin’s leadership skills have translated well to professional hockey as the 24-year-old served as one of the assistant captains for the AHL Bruins last season. It is more than likely McLaughlin will start the season with Providence once again but could earn a bottom-six role with Boston out of training camp.

Devils Loan Jakub Málek To Liiga’s Ilves

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Ilves of the top-level Finnish Liiga announced they’ll receive Devils goaltending prospect Jakub Málek on loan for the 2024-25 season. New Jersey signed Málek to his entry-level contract earlier this offseason, and the Rome Daily Sentinel’s Ben Birnell reported at the time that he’d be heading to Ilves this year.

Málek, 22, will return to the club he’s spent the last two seasons with. He was a fourth-round pick of the Devils in 2021, and the 6’4″ Czech netminder has done well in European professional leagues since. His post-draft year was electric, backstopping VHK Vsetín of the second-tier Czech league with a .932 SV% and 1.95 GAA in 31 games en route to being named the circuit’s best goaltender. Clearly ready for top-flight action, he headed to Finland, where he’s put up a strong .910 SV% and 2.24 GAA with four shutouts and a 25-11-9 record in 49 appearances over the past two years.

Needless to say, he’s trending upward and his chances of making the NHL at some point over the next few seasons seem high. But it won’t be next year, as a bit of a goalie logjam in Newark means he’ll be better served getting some guaranteed playing time with Ilves. The Devils already had prospects Tyler Brennan and Isaac Poulter under contract and slated for AHL Utica this year, as well as unsigned RFA Nico Daws.

Málek will likely arrive in North America in the fall of 2025, better positioned to command AHL starts and eventually become a call-up option.

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