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Colorado Avalanche Re-Sign Jason Polin

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Keeping a bit of internal depth through the system, the Colorado Avalanche have agreed to terms on a one-year contract with forward Jason Polin. As an undrafted free agent, Polin signed a one-year, entry-level contract with the Avalanche in late March of 2023.

It is difficult to say anything other than ’subpar’ regarding Polin’s first full season within the Avalanche organization. This past season Polin dressed in 42 games for the team’s AHL affiliate, the Colorado Eagles, where he only mustered four goals and 10 points overall. Colorado hoped for much more production coming from Polin considering his collegiate career at Western Michigan University.

Polin spent four years for the Broncos and was named team captain before the 2022-23 NCAA season. In 39 games that season, Polin potted a whopping 30 goals and 47 points while collecting five hat tricks throughout the year. Polin tied the would-be third overall pick of that year’s draft, Adam Fantilli, in goals across the entire NCAA. Adding to his resume; Polin set an NCHC record for goals scored during the regular season and was named NCHC Player of the Year and NCHC Forward of the Year while finishing top-10 in Hobey Baker Award voting.

Polin has already collected seven games at the NHL level with the Avalanche in which he has scored one goal. With Colorado being desperate for cheap depth at the forward position, they may give Polin another chance in the NHL. However, if he cannot produce similarly to his playing days in the NCAA, his time with the Avalanche organization may only last another season.

Ducks Sign Beckett Sennecke, Stian Solberg To Entry-Level Contracts

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Another top-10 selection from the 2024 NHL Draft has signed an entry-level contract as the Anaheim Ducks announced the team has agreed to terms with Beckett Sennecke. The Toronto, ON native was drafted by the Ducks with the third overall selection of last week’s draft.

According to CapFriendly, the deal will have a base salary of $875K at the NHL level with a $97.5K yearly signing bonus in addition to $1MM per year in performance bonuses. After factoring in the performance and signing bonuses attached to the deal, Sennecke will have the ability to make $1.975MM per year on his entry-level deal.

Sennecke was one of the later risers in the draft after an outstanding performance in the Ontario Hockey League playoffs this past year. The young forward scored 27 goals and 68 points for the Oshawa Generals over 63 games in the regular season and scored an impressive 10 goals and 22 points in 16 postseason contests. Not only did Sennecke lead the Generals in goals and points throughout the 2024 OHL playoffs — he led the entire league.

Even though he is considered a considerable reach with the third overall pick, the Ducks are still getting an exceptional talent. Sennecke has mature awareness and puckhandling for his age and should help Anaheim on both sides of the puck.

Outside of Sennecke, the Ducks have also signed 23rd overall pick from the 2024 NHL Draft, Stian Solberg, to his entry-level contract according to a team announcement. Solberg spent last season playing for Vålerenga of Norway’s top professional league, the Eliteserien.

In 42 games against other professional players, Solberg scored five goals and 15 points while carrying a +2 rating. Also putting in impressive work during the postseason, Solberg scored two goals and nine points in 17 postseason contests while his regular season scoring was the fourth-most by a defenseman under the age of 18.

Next season, Solberg is expected to take his talents to the Swedish Hockey League where he will play for Färjestad BK. The club has a decent history of producing NHL-caliber defensemen as Fredrik Olausson, Jonas Brodin, and Oliver Kylington, among others are products of the 91-year-old Swedish franchise.

Los Angeles Kings Sign Caleb Jones

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The Los Angeles Kings brought some depth to their defensive core announcing a one-year, two-way contract with defenseman Caleb Jones. It will mark the second year in a row that Jones will have to settle for a league minimum contract on the open market.

Jones originally signed a one-year contract with the Carolina Hurricanes last offseason but couldn’t find any playing time on a deep Hurricanes blue line. Carolina traded Jones to the Colorado Avalanche in exchange for Callahan Burke exactly two months after signing the depth defenseman. He would go on to split the year between the Avalanche and their AHL affiliate, the Colorado Eagles.

During his time in the American Hockey League, Jones managed six assists for the Eagles over 12 games and produced a -2 rating. He was recalled on three separate occasions to the Avalanche on an emergency loan and would end up playing 25 games where he tallied five helpers. Still, Jones was rarely used by Colorado during his time on the NHL roster as he only averaged 12:12 of ice time per night. Nevertheless, the team still opted to use him when they could, and Jones was able to suit up in three postseason games for the Avalanche for the first time since the 2019-20 Stanley Cup playoffs.

It will be interesting to see where Jones fits into the lineup for Los Angeles as the team already has eight defensemen signed to NHL contracts without factoring in the next deal for Jordan Spence. In all likelihood, Jones will start the year with the Kings’ AHL affiliate in Ontario, CA unless there is an injury to the blue line during training camp.

Florida Panthers Sign Jaycob Megna

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The Florida Panthers announced the team has signed defenseman Jaycob Megna to a one-year, two-way contract for the 2024-25 NHL season. The deal will pay Megna the league minimum of $775K at the NHL level as Megna joins the fourth organization of his career.

Two summers ago, Megna signed on with the San Jose Sharks on a two-year contract paying him $1.525MM over the contract. Megna would not last long in San Jose on this contract as the team moved him to the Seattle Kraken in early February of 2023 in exchange for a conditional fourth-round pick. Serving as depth for the Kraken as they made their way to the 2023 Stanley Cup playoffs, Megna managed six games down the stretch.

With an injury to start the year and improved defensive depth on the NHL club, the Kraken placed Megna on waivers nearly two weeks after he finished his conditioning stint in AHL Coachella Valley. The Chicago Blackhawks claimed Megna on waivers and gave the defenseman much more opportunity at the NHL level. Megna logged 17:31 of ice time on average in Chicago while suiting up in 44 games for the Original Six franchise. The defenseman only tallied two assists on the year but did block 87 shots and made 60 body checks on opponents.

Over the first few days of free agency, the Panthers have lost considerable depth on their blue line with the departures of Brandon Montour, Oliver Ekman-Larsson, and Josh Mahura. Despite the loss of talent, Megna should start the season with the team’s AHL affiliate in Charlotte while being able to fill in for injury at any point during the regular season.

14 Players Elect For Salary Arbitration

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Per Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman and originally produced by the National Hockey Leaguer Players’ Association, 14 players have elected for salary arbitration this summer. The deadline for team-elected arbitration is tomorrow. Friedman also notes the arbitration hearings will happen between July 20th and August 4th. To add context, not every one of these players will appear for a hearing with their respective teams as they may continue to negotiate on a new contract. However, each player who elects for salary arbitration is now prohibited from negotiating with other teams or signing an offer sheet. Here is a list of the players that have elected for arbitration:

F Beck Malenstyn (Buffalo Sabres)
G Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen (Buffalo Sabres)
F Martin Necas (Carolina Hurricanes)
F Jack Drury (Carolina Hurricanes)
D Jake Christiansen (Columbus Blue Jackets)
G Jet Greaves (Columbus Blue Jackets)
F Kirill Marchenko (Columbus Blue Jackets)
F Joe Veleno (Detroit Red Wings)
D Spencer Stastney (Nashville Predators)
F Oliver Wahlstrom (New York Islanders)
D Ryan Lindgren (New York Rangers)
D Ty Emberson (San Jose Sharks)
D J.J. Moser (Tampa Bay Lightning)
F Connor Dewar (Toronto Maple Leafs)

Buffalo Sabres Sign Henri Jokiharju

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Rather than wait for an arbitrator to sort out his next contract, the Buffalo Sabres, and Henri Jokiharju have agreed to a one-year, $3.1MM contract. The deal will keep Jokiharju in Buffalo for his sixth season with the team and he will become an unrestricted free agent upon expiration.

Jokiharju is coming off arguably the best individual season of his career as he scored three goals and 20 points in 74 games for the Sabres while averaging nearly 19 minutes of ice time per night. The Finnish defenseman has become much better defensively as he led the team with a +14 rating and finished the season with a 92.0% on-ice save percentage in all situations. He didn’t spend too much time this past season on Buffalo’s special teams but would be the first option in case of injury.

The deal also ensures that the Sabres will bring back a nearly identical defensive core to last season as they improved dramatically in keeping the puck out of their net. During the 2022-23 NHL season Buffalo finished 26th in the league in goals against per game with a 3.62 mark and watched it fall to 2.96 this past season which was good for 11th in the league. If the defensive can hold strong and the offense can rebound to the tenacity it showed during the 2022-23 season, the Sabres should be well positioned to earn a playoff spot this upcoming season.

Buffalo now has approximately $13.7MM left in cap space to work with and new contracts are needed for remaining restricted free agents Peyton Krebs, Beck Malenstyn, and Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen. None of the three should eat much into that number especially if the Sabres can keep them on shorter-term contracts.

Sabres Acquire Ryan McLeod, Trade Matt Savoie To Oilers

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3:33 PM: The Sabres organization have confirmed the trade with Edmonton.

3:08 PM: According to Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman, the Edmonton Oilers and Buffalo Sabres are working on a trade that would send Ryan McLeod to the American Northeast. In a follow-up report, Friedman suggests the Oilers will receive forward prospect Matt Savoie from the Sabres and will additionally send Tyler Tullio to Buffalo.

The Sabres were intent on improving their middle six and bottom six this summer and will acquire McLeod as he enters the last year of a two-year, $4.2MM contract. Featuring breakneck speed and a high motor in the offensive zone, it will be difficult to find a better player than McLeod to plug into the Sabres bottom-six. During the past three years in south-central Alberta, McLeod has suited up in 209 games for the Oilers, scoring 32 goals and 74 points while averaging 13:43 of ice time per night.

Outside of the topical statistics, McLeod is an analytical dream. He has averaged a 52.7% CorsiFor% throughout his career which will give the Sabres a boost in the possession game after finishing the 2023-24 season with a 51.2% team average in the category. According to HockeyReference, McLeod has an E +/- of 20.3 throughout his career showing that he limits his opponent’s ability to score when he is on the ice. The Sabres improved considerably in this department last season, and McLeod will help continue that effort and be an effective penalty killer.

Tullio is also heading to the Sabres organization and will likely start the year with the team’s AHL affiliate Rochester Americans. The Oilers selected Tullio with the 126th overall selection of the 2020 NHL Draft and he has spent the last two years playing for the Bakersfield Condors. Tullio has scored 22 goals and 47 points over 117 games in AHL Bakersfield and should slot into a bottom-six role with the Americans.

Edmonton will not come away unhappy from this deal as they’ve acquired quite a prospect in Savoie. The young center is two years removed from being the ninth overall pick of the 2022 NHL Draft and recently finished his playing days in the Western Hockey League. Savoie split the 2023-24 WHL season between the Wenatchee Wild and Moose Jaw Warriors in a season where he scored 30 goals and 71 points in only 34 games. Continuing to prove his offensive prowess in the playoffs, Savoie scored 10 goals and 24 points in 19 postseason contests for the Warriors as he led his team to the Memorial Cup semifinals.

Savoie eventually made his professional debut last season in AHL Rochester where he scored two goals and five points in six contests. One could reasonably assume that Savoie will start the 2024-25 NHL season with the Condors but could be a sneaky option to be called up and placed next to Connor McDavid or Leon Draisaitl. Whatever his pathway is, the Oilers bring in a cost-effective option who can immediately play in the team’s top six.

Capitals Sign First-Rounder Terik Parascak

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The Capitals have signed right winger Terik Parascak to his three-year, entry-level contract, the team announced today. It carries a the maximum ELC cap hit of $975K.

Parascak was the Capitals’ lone first-round selection in last week’s draft, coming off the board at 17th overall. He was one of the WHL’s most unexpectedly prolific scorers last season, exploding for 105 points (43 goals, 62 assists) in 68 games with the Prince George Cougars. The 6’0″, 173-lb forward led all WHL rookies and goals and points and finished eighth in scoring leaguewide after suiting up in just four contests for the Cougars in 2022-23, instead spending the campaign with a U18 prep program.

For his stellar rookie showing, Parascak received CHL All-Rookie Team honors and was named to the WHL’s B.C. Division Second All-Star Team. Those 105 points were the most by a rookie in all CHL leagues (OHL, QMJHL, WHL) since Patrick Kane had 145 and Sam Gagner had 114, both in the 2006-07 campaign. He tacked on 14 points in 12 playoff games to end the season as the Cougars were eliminated in the Western Conference Final.

But as such a late bloomer heading into his draft year, Parascak didn’t land the draft acclaim that you’d expect from those stats. He was ranked 15th among North American skaters by NHL Central Scouting and was viewed as a consensus late first-round pick. TSN’s Bob McKenzie’s polling of NHL scouts landed him at No. 25, so Washington pounced on the winger a tad earlier than expected.

That’s because, as Elite Prospects outlines in their 2024 NHL Draft Guide, there are major concerns about his skating and ability to drive play on his own, especially in transition. He struggled to exit his own zone cleanly throughout the season. It’s worth noting that Prince George had two other 100-point players: Wild 2023 second-rounder Riley Heidt (117) and Washington UDFA signing Zac Funk (123), both older than Parascak. They certainly helped bolster his scoring totals.

Parascak will be loaned back to Prince George next season, in all likelihood, bumping the start of his ELC to 2025-26. The 28-year-old is a May 2006 birthday, so Washington can execute that entry-level slide twice.

Penguins Re-Sign Corey Andonovski To Two-Way Deal

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The Penguins have re-signed right winger Corey Andonovski to a one-year, two-way deal, the team announced today. It carries the league-minimum $775K cap hit. The team didn’t disclose his AHL salary.

Andonovski, 25, is coming off his second full season in the organization, both of which have been spent entirely on assignment to AHL Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, aside from a one-day call-up last October that didn’t result in his NHL debut. He set career highs in 2023-24 with 23 assists and 30 points in 63 games, leading WBS forwards in assists and ranking fifth on the team in points.

Dating back to his AHL debut on an ATO for the Baby Pens to close out the 2021-22 season, Andonovski has 49 points (15 goals, 34 assists) in 130 games. The 6’1″, 194-lb forward was initially an undrafted free agent signing out of Princeton, where he recorded 21 goals, 29 assists and 50 points in 80 career NCAA games.

While he’s taken a step forward, the chances of him making his first NHL appearance on this new deal are slim. There is a bevy of either more experienced (Jonathan Gruden, Bokondji Imama) or higher-ceiling (Vasiliy Ponomarev, Samuel Poulin) forward options available in the Pittsburgh system that would likely get a call-up ahead of Andonovski.

As he was this summer, he’ll be an RFA again in the 2025 offseason. He still won’t require waivers to head to WBS in the fall, although it’s his last season with an exemption.

Senators Sign Jan Jeník To Two-Way Deal

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The Senators have signed right winger Jan Jeník to a two-way deal, according to a team announcement. The deal carries a $775K cap hit and NHL salary with a $190K AHL salary. Ottawa acquired Jeník’s signing rights – he was an RFA – from Utah in a swap Wednesday that sent forward Egor Sokolov the other way.

Jeník, 24 in September, was selected by the Coyotes in the third round of the 2018 draft out of his native Czechia. After splitting the beginning of the 2018-19 season between the first and second leagues in the Czech pyramid, Jeník arrived stateside midseason to play junior hockey with the OHL’s Hamilton Bulldogs. It would be another season and a half before he made his NHL debut, receiving a brief two-game call-up during the shortened 2020-21 season. He got off to a hot start, scoring in back-to-back games against the Sharks while averaging 12:05 per game.

However, it wasn’t a sign of things to come. Jeník spent much of the next two seasons in the minors, where he produced well with 47 points in 51 games and 23 points in 30 games in the 2021-22 and 2022-23 campaigns with AHL Tucson. It didn’t result in much NHL opportunity, though, as he made only 15 appearances during that time in which he scored twice and added an assist with a -6 rating. That led Jeník to reportedly seek a trade the following summer before eventually relenting and signing a two-way deal to return to Arizona for 2023-24.

Last season again yielded little NHL opportunity for Jeník, limited to one assist and a -1 rating in five games while averaging a paltry 8:23 per contest. His point-per-game production with Tucson also took a hit, decreasing to 0.65 (36 points in 55 games) after putting up 0.92 and 0.77 the prior two years. Now, he officially joins a Senators squad that’s lost some scoring depth this summer, giving him a chance to compete with players like Angus Crookshank, Zack MacEwen and Zack Ostapchuk for a roster spot during training camp. He would require waivers to head to the minors if cut, but he cleared last fall without incident.

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