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Devils Sign Dawson Mercer To Three-Year Deal

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3:20 PM: The Devils have confirmed the signing through a press release.

9:38 a.m.: Mercer’s deal consists solely of base salary, PuckPedia reports. He’ll earn $3MM in 2024-25, $4.75MM in 2025-26, and $4.25MM in 2026-27. That means he’s owed a $4.25MM qualifying offer upon expiration in 2027.

7:06 a.m.: The Devils and restricted free agent forward Dawson Mercer have come to terms on a three-year, $12MM deal, Darren Dreger of TSN reports Friday. It’s good for a $4MM cap hit.

Mercer, 23 next month, was one of four notable RFAs still left unsigned after training camps began across the league earlier this week. Now, only Nikita Alexandrov (Blues), Cole Perfetti (Jets), and Jeremy Swayman (Bruins) remain without deals among RFAs who logged significant NHL time last season.

The 2020 No. 18 overall pick is coming off a down year, making it easy to shift negotiations toward a bridge deal rather than shelling out cash for a long-term pact with greater risk for the team. The Newfoundland and Labrador native still managed to hit the 20-goal mark but posted career lows in assists (13), points (33), and rating (-26).

Mercer is a skilled shooter, finishing on 14.3% of his 449 shots on goal over his three-year career. He’s also proven highly durable – he’s yet to miss a game since making his NHL debut on the opening night of the 2021-22 regular season.

While a natural center, Mercer has spent most of his time on the wing in the NHL. That’s partly because the Devils have Nico Hischier and Jack Hughes locked in as their top two centers but also because of Mercer’s struggles in the faceoff dot. He’s improving in that regard, winning 119 of his 265 draws last year (44.9 FOW%), but still has a career win rate of 39%.

He’s flashed hints of his offensive ceiling, posting 56 points in 2022-23 during New Jersey’s resurgent 112-point campaign. His production and possession numbers have primarily risen and fallen with the team’s record, so with the Devils primed to return to postseason competition next spring, expect a rebound from Mercer.

General manager Tom Fitzgerald said they were close to a deal over a month ago, but it took quite a lot of work to finalize. There were near-daily reports over the past few days that the Devils and Mercer were feverishly working toward getting him signed and in training camp as soon as possible.

After averaging a career-high 17:13 per game last season, including significant time on both special teams units, Mercer will look to stick in a more consistent top-six role at even strength in 2024-25. He bounced around plenty last year, not recording more than 100 minutes of ice time with a single set of linemates, per MoneyPuck. Early line rushes at training camp, accounting for placeholders, suggest he could open the season alongside Hughes and Timo Meier.

The Devils now have $976K in projected cap space with an open roster spot after Mercer signed, per PuckPedia. That figure assumes defenseman Luke Hughes will start the season on standard injured reserve with a shoulder injury, not long-term injured reserve.

Keeping Mercer’s cap hit to $4MM allows the Devils to carry a full 23-man roster on opening night without needing to place Hughes on LTIR to open up cap space. Santeri Hatakka is the likeliest candidate to fill in as an extra defender on the NHL roster after posting two assists and a +5 rating in 12 games in fringe action for New Jersey last season.

A three-year deal doesn’t walk Mercer to unrestricted free agency. He’ll still be under team control when his deal expires after the 2026-27 season.

Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.

Blue Jackets Promote Rick Nash To Director Of Hockey Operations

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The Blue Jackets have named Rick Nash their director of hockey operations, general manager Don Waddell announced Friday. They’ve also brought in former Hurricanes manager of hockey operations Zach Abdou in the same role and named Basil McRae their director of professional scouting.

For the 40-year-old Nash, it’s another big step toward becoming an NHL GM. Columbus’ all-time leader in every offensive category has been part of their front office since announcing his retirement in 2019. He first joined as a special assistant to former GM Jarmo Kekäläinen, serving in that role through 2020-21 before being promoted to their director of player development.

In addition to his Jackets duties, Nash has gotten his feet wet internationally. He was an assistant GM for Canada at the 2022 World Championship and returned as GM this year, but the team failed to medal for the first time since 2018 despite going undefeated in the group stage.

Nash will largely replace McRae’s duties. McRae, 63, has been with the Blue Jackets on and off since 2013 as an amateur scout and director of player personnel. He had been an assistant GM since Nash joined the front office for the 2019-20 season. He’ll now move back fully to the scouting department as the top name on that pyramid.

Abdou, 27, worked under Waddell for the latter’s final three seasons as GM of the Hurricanes, serving as their hockey operations coordinator for two years before a promotion to manager for 2023-24. He follows his boss to Columbus after Waddell signed a multi-year deal to become the Jackets’ GM, alternate governor, and president of hockey operations back in May.

Metropolitan Notes: Ovechkin, Sandin, Mayfield, Karlsson

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While Capitals captain Alex Ovechkin avoided a new injury when he left an informal skate earlier this week, he’s still not 100%. Washington head coach Spencer Carbery said Thursday that Ovi is still “a little bit nicked up” from a minor injury he sustained while training over the summer and was slightly limited during the Caps’ first full camp practices yesterday (via NHL.com’s Tom Gulitti).

The 39-year-old isn’t concerned about it as he enters a campaign that could cement him as the NHL’s all-time goals leader. “You just have to be smart, and we talked about it with our trainers and the coaching staff,” he said. “So, I went [out] there just to see how I feel, and I feel nice out there. I was skating normal.”

Ovechkin needs 41 goals to tie Wayne Gretzky’s record of 894 career snipes and 42 to break it. Before dropping to 31 tallies last season, Ovechkin had 42 goals in 2022-23 and 50 in 2021-22 – putting some April 2025 history well within reach.

More from the Metropolitan Division:

  • Sticking with the Caps, defenseman Rasmus Sandin is still absent from camp festivities Friday due to issues with his U.S. work visa, reports Sammi Silber of The Hockey News. The 24-year-old Swede had 23 points (3 G, 20 A) with a -13 rating in 68 games during his first entire season in Washington after being acquired from the Maple Leafs before the 2023 trade deadline. He projects to start the year as Washington’s No. 2 left-shot defenseman behind offseason trade pickup Jakob Chychrun after averaging a career-high 21:07 per game last season. Without a full slate of practices, Sandin appears unlikely to be able to play in the Caps’ preseason opener against the Flyers on Sunday.
  • As expected, Islanders defenseman Scott Mayfield is full go as training camp kicks off. He told Stefen Rosner of The Hockey News that his ankle “feels fine” after undergoing season-ending surgery to repair a fracture in March. Mayfield, 32 in October, sustained the break in the 2023-24 regular-season opener but played through it as best he could, posting five points and a -7 rating in 41 contests. It was an underwhelming start to the seven-year, $24.5MM contract he signed to stay an Islander for likely the rest of his career in July 2023.
  • Penguins star defenseman Erik Karlsson is absent for the third straight day of camp with an upper-body injury, relays Matt Vensel of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. He remains labeled as day-to-day but should now be considered doubtful for Saturday’s preseason opener against the Sabres. The 34-year-old played in all 82 games last season in his first campaign as a Penguin, finishing fourth on the team in scoring with 56 points (11 G, 45 A).

Central Notes: Holland, Perfetti, Sundqvist, Jiricek

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Longtime executive Ken Holland may be joining the third team of his career with former player Jordan Schmaltz reporting Holland will be joining the Utah Hockey Club in some capacity. Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman and Frank Seravalli of Daily Faceoff slightly downplayed the report by indicating Holland had merely been invited to Utah’s camp and no formal hire had been made.

Both reports from Friedman and Seravalli indicated that Holland maintained several connections in Utah’s front office leading to the invite to training camp. There may even be a pathway for Holland to work with his son Brad in some capacity with the newly relocated franchise as the latter recently parted ways with the Edmonton Oilers as assistant general manager.

A hire of Holland would undoubtedly bring a wealth of knowledge and experience to the new franchise with Holland starting his professional career as an amateur scout for the Detroit Red Wings in 1985-86. He went on to win four Stanley Cups with Detroit (three as general manager) in six attempts and one attempt with the Oilers last year. Any hypothetical role he takes in Utah will be a lesser one than he is accustomed to with the organization already having a president of hockey operations in Chris Armstrong and a general manager in Bill Armstrong.

Other Central notes:

  • Winnipeg Jets general manager Kevin Cheveldayoff spoke at length today regarding the extension negotiations with forward Cole Perfetti (X Link). Cheveldayoff was adamant the team is still trying to craft a resolution with Perfetti now that training camp has kicked off. Perfetti is looking for other skating arrangements while the contract negotiations play out to be ready for the start of the regular season. It doesn’t appear the lengthy negotiations will tarnish the relationship between the Jets and Perfetti with Cheveldayoff saying, “Personally, I’d give these guys the moon. I’d love to have the ability to pay them everything they want and deserve. In a salary cap world I have to make business decisions“. Winnipeg currently has approximately $5.77MM in cap space with no other RFA’s to sign according to PuckPedia.
  • The St. Louis Blues will be without a couple of players to start training camp with Matthew DeFranks of The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reporting Oskar Sundqvist and Adam Jiříček are out with knee injuries. Neither player is expected to play any preseason contests but Sundqivst should already have a guaranteed spot on the roster despite his early absence. Jiricek, the younger brother of Columbus Blue Jackets defenseman, David Jiříček, was recently selected by the Blues as the 16th overall pick in the 2024 NHL Draft. Jiricek was limited to 19 games last year with Czechia’s HC Plzeň due to a season-ending knee injury and his availability for the 2024-25 season is still in the air.

San Jose Sharks Announce Multiple Injuries

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The San Jose Sharks are set to begin camp without four notable players. General manager Mike Grier announced that Yaroslav Askarov, Logan Couture, and Shakir Mukhamadullin are out with lower-body injuries, while Marc-Edouard Vlasic is out with an upper-body injury (X Link).

None of the injuries, except for Couture, are expected to be long-term, but they will prohibit each player from joining the team at the beginning of camp. Max Miller of The Hockey News reported today that Couture hasn’t skated since his last game on January 31st, 2024, and isn’t close to resuming on-ice activities. There is little to no chance that Couture will be available to the team at training camp with Miller also reporting Couture is expected to start the year on the team’s injured reserve.

Couture was limited to only six games in the 2023-24 season due to osteitis pubis, joint inflammation that causes considerable pain and swelling in the groin and lower abdomen. It appears to be a question of not when but if Couture can return to his duties in San Jose for the 2024-25 season. He remains the highest-paid player in the organization with three years and $24MM remaining on his contract.

The team’s second highest-paid player, Vlasic, has been relatively healthy throughout his 18-year NHL career but did lose about two weeks of playing time last year in February with an upper-body injury. Vlasic has seen his playing time drop considerably over the previous four seasons after being one of the league’s best shutdown defensemen for over a decade. The acquisitions of Jake Walman and Cody Ceci over the offseason will likely lead to an even further decrease in ice time for the team’s most veteran defensemen.

The injuries to Askarov and Mukhamadullin will delay San Jose’s ability to analyze two of their better prospects heading into the season. Askarov’s success in the AHL is well-known up to this point and he is well-positioned to be the Sharks’ goaltender of the future after being acquired from the Nashville Predators late in the summer.

Mukhamadullin joined the organization in 2023 as a part of the package for Timo Meier. He skated in 55 games last year for the organization’s AHL affiliate in San Jose recording seven goals and 24 points. His size and skating ability on the blue line should make him a popular candidate to make the Sharks defensive core out of camp.

Atlantic Notes: Dahlin, Adams, Marner, Vasilevskiy

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Sabres star defenseman Rasmus Dahlin won’t be out long after sustaining an undisclosed injury in practice Wednesday. Head coach Lindy Ruff told reporters Thursday that Dahlin’s ailment is “nothing too serious” and will miss the next couple of days of practice, likely ruling him out of the Sabres’ preseason opener against the Penguins on Saturday (via Lance Lysowski of The Buffalo News).

Dahlin sustained the injury on a non-contact play early in yesterday’s practice session, and Buffalo staff essentially deemed his absence precautionary. Playing in a preseason opener is always a long shot for veterans anyway, as many teams stick to the eight-veteran minimum early on in the exhibition schedule.

The 24-year-old is entering the first season of the eight-year, $88MM extension he signed last October to remain with the Sabres through most of his prime. The first overall pick in the 2018 NHL Draft finished 15th in Norris Trophy voting last season after recording a career-high 20 goals and 235 shots on goal, adding 39 assists for 59 points in 81 games. The Swedish native has averaged over 25 minutes per game in the last two seasons.

More out of the Atlantic Division:

  • Sabres general manager Kevyn Adams has faced criticism for not weaponizing all of his cap space as Buffalo attempts to end its 13-year playoff drought in 2024-25. He told Lysowski on Wednesday that there’s been “zero pushback from ownership about what we spend or can’t spend,” saying that he’ll “spend the money that we think we need to spend to win.” The Sabres have $7MM in projected cap space with a full roster, per PuckPedia, giving them space to add effectively any player they want to on trade deadline day if they’re in a position to buy.
  • Mitch Marner is open to continuing extension negotiations with the Maple Leafs as the regular season progresses, he told reporters (including Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet). But don’t expect him to be involved in them directly. “I’m going to let my agent and Brad [Treliving] do all the talking and figure stuff out. I’m just going to focus on playing hockey and trying to help this team win games,” the star winger said.
  • After missing the first few weeks of last season while recovering from back surgery, Lightning netminder Andrei Vasilevskiy is ready to return to his routine heavy workload. The four-time Vezina Trophy finalist told reporters Wednesday that he’d be comfortable playing 70-plus games if head coach Jon Cooper let him (via Eduardo A. Encina of the Tampa Bay Times). He might need to if the Lightning end up in a tight race for a playoff spot – Jonas Johansson will be back as Vasilevskiy’s backup for a second year in a row while boasting a subpar career .888 SV% in 61 games.

Devils Notes: Pesce, Mercer, Haula, Nemec

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New Devils defenseman Brett Pesce is still recovering from season-ending surgery and isn’t on the ice with his teammates as training camp begins, the team’s Amanda Stein relays.

Pesce, 29, is listed as week-to-week. That designation doubts his availability for the Devils’ season opener, their Global Series matchup against the Sabres in Prague on Oct. 4.

The former Hurricane underwent surgery to repair a fibula fracture he sustained in Game 2 of last year’s First Round series against the Islanders. He reached unrestricted free agency for the first time this summer, signing a six-year, $33MM contract with New Jersey on July 1.

Pesce is coming off the worst offensive season of his career, having been limited to 13 points (3 G, 10 A) in 70 contests. His 20:17 ATOI was also his lowest since his rookie season in Carolina.

His usage likely won’t improve much in a second-pairing role behind Dougie Hamilton on New Jersey’s right side, nor will there be any power-play opportunity for him with Luke Hughes also in the picture. However, the strong skater and cerebral defender has a +92 rating in 627 career contests and has controlled over 50% of expected goals at even strength for four seasons in a row.

More from the Devils as training camp gets underway:

  • Unsigned restricted free agent Dawson Mercer remains away from his teammates, but general manager Tom Fitzgerald doesn’t expect his absence to stretch out much longer. Fitzgerald told reporters Thursday, including James Nichols of New Jersey Hockey Now, that he thinks “we’re really close” to an agreement being finalized. Contract negotiations have been on the front burner for over a month as the sides work toward a likely short-term pact, Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet said a couple of weeks back.
  • Center Erik Haula was absent from practice Thursday with an undisclosed illness, per Stein. It’s not a cause for concern this early in camp with the Devils’ first preseason game, which will likely be thin on veterans, still three days away. Haula has been a solid middle-six presence since being acquired from the Bruins in the 2022 offseason, logging 76 points in 156 games as a Devil while averaging 16:45 per night and winning 54.5% of his draws.
  • Rising sophomore defenseman Simon Nemec has full medical clearance after sustaining an injury while suiting up in an Olympic qualifier game for his native Slovakia late last month, Fitzgerald said (via Nichols). The second overall pick of the 2022 NHL Draft didn’t crack New Jersey’s opening night roster last season but quickly worked his way up the depth chart, making 60 appearances in his rookie year while finishing 14th in Calder Trophy voting. The right-shot defender projects to start the season in a third-pairing role behind Hamilton in Pesce after posting 19 points and a -7 rating with strong possession quality numbers in fringe top-four minutes in 2023-24.

Jaromír Jágr To Retire Following 2024-25 Season

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The 2024-25 season will be 52-year-old Jaromír Jágr’s last playing professional hockey. The all-time great will retire following the 2024-25 season, he told Rob Rossi of The Athletic over the phone Thursday.

It’s been over six years since the Flames assigned Jágr to Rytíři Kladno in Czechia, his hometown club, to play out the back half of a one-year deal he signed with Calgary for the 2017-18 season. That marked the end of his 24-year, 1,733-game NHL career, but it didn’t signal the end of his days playing at the professional level.

Jágr has been Kladno’s majority owner since 2011. The Penguins’ fifth overall pick in 1990 played his first two professional seasons with the club in the Czechoslovak top league before being drafted. He also played there during NHL lockouts in 1994, 2004-05, and 2012.

But by the time Jágr returned during his age 45 season, Kladno had been demoted from the top-level Czech Extraliga to the country’s second-tier pro league. Since his return, though, Kladno has stayed in the Extraliga for five out of the last eight seasons. Jágr was a force in helping them gain their initial promotion back to the top level, scoring 10 goals in 11 qualification games in 2019 to boost them back to the Extraliga for the 2019-20 campaign.

Now in his 37th season of professional hockey, Jágr is understandably no longer a premier force on the ice. The right-winger was limited to 15 regular-season appearances for Kladno last year, posting four assists and a -4 rating. He was in the lineup for Kladno’s Extraliga regular-season opener Wednesday, though, posting an assist and a -1 rating in 14:26 of ice time. It was a promising showing after tearing his hamstring less than a month ago, putting his availability for yesterday’s game in doubt.

Jágr’s NHL résumé needs no introduction. He may have never lifted the Stanley Cup in his prime, only winning it back-to-back with Pittsburgh in his first two NHL campaigns, but he was a game-changing threat in the NHL’s most offensively challenging era. Jágr won five scoring titles, including four straight from 1998 to 2001, and also won the Pearson Award (now the Ted Lindsay Award) as the most outstanding player as selected by their peers on three occasions (1999, 2000, 2006).

On the NHL’s all-time leaderboard, Jágr ranks fourth in games played, fourth in goals (766), fifth in assists (1,155), and second in points (1,921). He’s also a member of the Triple Gold Club, powering the Czechs to a gold medal at the 1998 Winter Olympics and winning a pair of World Championship gold medals (2005, 2010).

While Jágr donned the sweater of nine NHL teams – the Penguins, Rangers, Capitals, Panthers, Devils, Flyers, Bruins, Stars, and Flames – he’ll always best be remembered for his peak years in Pittsburgh. That’s where he’ll likely return after his playing days are done next year. Rossi reported in May that the club was working to hire Jágr in a front-office role whenever he was ready to transition to the next chapter of his hockey career.

Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.

Avalanche Notes: Rantanen, Landeskog, Lehkonen, Annunen

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When asked about a potential contract extension, star Colorado Avalanche winger Mikko Rantanen has shared that he plans to stay in Denver for the foreseeable future and that the business side of things will sort itself out, per Aarif Deen of Mile High Sports.

Rantanen is coming off yet another career year, posting 42 goals and 104 points – just one point shy of the career high he sent last season, though he played in two fewer games this year. He’s emerged as the clear 1B to Nathan MacKinnon’s 1A – giving Colorado one of the most formidable top lines in the league. Rantanen has climbed to 617 points in 570 career games – with 301 of those points coming in the last three seasons alone. He seems focused on repeating the dominant scoring this season, confident that a new deal with Avalanche will come to fruition when necessary.

Other notes out of the Mile High City:

  • Head coach Jared Bednar spoke with the media ahead of Colorado’s start to training camp and among the updates, shared that there’s no news on team captain Gabriel Landeskog per Deen. Bednar mentioned that Landeskog has made big strides but that the situation remains up in the air. He hasn’t played since June of 2022, supporting Colorado’s run to the 2022 Stanley Cup after a trio of injury-shortened seasons. He’s an incredibly effective scorer when he plays, scoring 30 goals and 59 points in 51 games in his most recent season. That’s the production that fans have come to expect from their captain, leading Landeskog to 571 points across 738 career games. There’s hope that he can return to the top flight soon, though it seems he’ll need to overcome more hurdles before he’s back in the NHL.
  • Winger Artturi Lehkonen isn’t expected to attend training camp as he continues recovering from a shoulder injury that required surgery in May, shares Meghan Angley of The DNVR.com. Lehkonen only appeared in 45 games last season, but still managed an admirable 16 goals and 34 points. He’s flashed strong scoring over the last three seasons, totaling 123 points in 183 games split between Montreal and Colorado. He’ll sit out of the team’s training camp, hoping to return to a solid lineup role once he’s healthy.
  • Bednar also shared high remarks for top goalie prospect Justus Annunen, sharing that he could eat into starter Alexandar Georgiev’s workload, shares Angley. Georgiev has played in 125 games over the last two seasons,  recording a modest 78 wins and .908 save percentage. Annunen split time between the NHL and AHL last season, posting an impressive .928 save percentage in the outings. He emerged as a top-end AHL starter in 2022-23, with 22 wins and a .916 save percentage in 41 appearances. It’s not clear how the Avalanche will platoon their netminders this year, but Annunen’s recent success could be too much for Colorado to ignore.

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