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League Notes: Chinakhov, Morrow, Cooke

July 20, 2025 at 4:26 pm CDT | by Paul Griser 7 Comments

While Blue Jackets winger Yegor Chinakhov only recently formally requested a trade, tensions between him and the organization have been building for some time, reports The Athletic’s Aaron Portzline.

As Portzline outlines, discontent between Chinakhov and Columbus has been evident for years, noting that early in the 2023-24 season, Babaev told The Columbus Dispatch that Chinakhov, “doesn’t feel the (Blue Jackets) trust him, and he wants to leave.” Then last season, Chinakhov struggled with a back injury and later told reporters that he and the team disagreed on the best course of treatment. This ultimately led to Chinakhov traveling to Russia during the 4 Nations Face-Off break to have a procedure that wasn’t an approved treatment in North America, Portzline reports. And while Chinakhov averaged a career-high 15:43 of ice time per game last season, he became a frequent healthy scratch at the tail end of the campaign, sitting out 12 of the Jackets’ final 13 games.

This all resulted in Chinakhov and Babaev making official trade demands this week, with Chinakhov speaking to Russian outlet Sport-Express, and Babaev posting on X and speaking with The Athletic. While his back injury (and healthy scratches) led to just 30 games played last season, Chinakhov has stated this offseason that he is 100 percent healthy. In 175 career NHL games, the 24-year-old former first-round pick has recorded 34 goals and 71 points and could offer another franchise a quality depth scoring option.

Portzline adds that the Blue Jackets expect Chinakhov to report to training camp if a trade does not materialize, and Chinakhov has stated he expects to honor his contract, which comes with a $2.1MM AAV. Given Chinakhov’s stated desire for top-six minutes and the Blue Jackets’ need for scoring, Portzline notes the irony in the two sides being unable to find common ground.

In other news around the league:

  • Former first-round selection defenseman Joe Morrow has signed a one-year deal with Unia Oswiecim of the Polska Hokej Liga (PHL) in Poland, per Seth Rorabaugh of Trib Live. Morrow, 32, was selected by the Pittsburgh Penguins 23rd overall in the 2011 draft. He was then traded in 2013 to the Boston Bruins in a deal that brought veteran forward Brenden Morrow (no relation) back to the Penguins. Morrow would go on to suit up in 162 career NHL games across five seasons for the Bruins, Winnipeg Jets, and Montreal Canadiens. He also appeared in 174 AHL games over his career. Following the 2019-20 season, Morrow headed overseas and has appeared in the KHL and spent the last two years in the Elite Ice Hockey League (EHIL) in the United Kingdom.
  • Former NHL forward Matt Cooke, a veteran of more than 1,000 career games, was hired as head coach and general manager of the Vernon Vipers of the British Columbia Hockey League, Rorabaugh reports. Vernon plays in the junior “A” league, the second-highest tier of Canada’s junior hockey. As Rorabaugh outlines, Cooke has coached at various levels since his retirement in 2015, including stints including a stint as head coach of the ECHL’s Newfoundland Growlers. Over 14 NHL seasons, Cooke, who was known for playing on the edge, recorded 398 points and 1,135 penalty minutes. He won the Stanley Cup with the Pittsburgh Penguins in 2009, playing a key role on the team’s third line alongside Jordan Staal and Tyler Kennedy.

Columbus Blue Jackets| Transactions Joe Morrow| Matt Cooke| Yegor Chinakhov

7 comments

Defenseman Ty Smith Signs With KHL

July 20, 2025 at 1:44 pm CDT | by Paul Griser 3 Comments

Former first-round defenseman Ty Smith is heading overseas after signing a one-year deal with the KHL’s Dinamo Minsk, per Trib Live reporter Seth Rorabaugh. As Rorabaugh notes, the team announced the deal via Telegram, a popular social media platform in Europe. While Dinamo Minsk competes in the Russian league, the team is based in Belarus.

Smith was selected 17th overall by the New Jersey Devils in the 2018 draft. He demonstrated strong offensive upside during his time with the WHL’s Spokane Chiefs, recording 235 points in 240 games from the blue line. That success helped him bypass the AHL altogether, and he made his debut with the Devils to start the 2020-21 season, posting a respectable 23 points in 48 games as a rookie. For his success, Smith was named to the 2020-21 All-Rookie Team, alongside future stars like Kirill Kaprizov and Jason Robertson.

However, he was unable to replicate that success again. In 66 games the following season, Smith put up just 20 points and struggled in the defensive zone, posting a -26 rating. The following offseason, the Devils shipped Smith and a third-round pick to the rival Pittsburgh Penguins for defenseman John Marino. While in Pittsburgh’s organization, Smith showcased strong stats with the AHL’s Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins, posting 67 points in 102 games across two seasons. However, he was only able to suit up in nine NHL games with Pittsburgh, posting a goal and three assists.

The Penguins then traded Smith to the Carolina Hurricanes as part of the Jake Guentzel deal at the 2024 trade deadline. However, a similar pattern followed in Carolina, where he produced well in the AHL but struggled to earn consistent NHL minutes. In 36 games for the AHL’s Chicago Wolves during the 2024-25 season, Smith posted five goals and 28 points. But he only suited up in eight games for the Hurricanes, posting two points while averaging 13:40 of ice time per game.

In 131 NHL games, the Alberta native recorded nine goals and 49 points. Still just 24 years old, Smith has time to rejuvenate his career, and a strong showing overseas could be a meaningful first step.

 

2025 Free Agency| KHL Ty Smith

3 comments

Edmonton Oilers Expecting Big Year From Matt Savoie

July 19, 2025 at 8:00 pm CDT | by Brennan McClain 7 Comments

As the focal piece acquired by the Edmonton Oilers in the trade that sent center Ryan McLeod to the Buffalo Sabres last summer, many believed Matt Savoie would become a low-cost, high-upside option that the Oilers could put next to Connor McDavid or Leon Draisaitl in the team’s top-six. Hindsight being 20/20, Savoie only played in four games with Edmonton throughout the 2024-25 season, spending much of his time with their AHL affiliate, the Bakersfield Condors.

Still, the team expects Savoie to register his rookie campaign during the 2025-26 campaign and be a potent contributor. In a recent piece by Derek Van Diest of NHL.com, Oilers’ General Manager Stan Bowman laid out his expectations for Savoie, saying, “There is some growth from within. I think Matt Savoie is probably poised to take a big step next year.”

The team’s head coach, Kris Knoblauch, shared similar sentiments, saying, “With Savoie, the one thing that I’m very optimistic about is penalty kill and how good he was in Bakersfield in that role. He didn’t have any penalty-kill time when he was with us but certainly, we saw him being a reliable two-way player at 5-on-5. The opportunity for Savoie is on the penalty kill, not that he can’t be on the power play, but I definitely see him being a big part of our penalty kill.”

Interestingly, Knoblaugh highlighted the penalty kill regarding Savoie. He’s been an efficient scorer at the AHL level over the past two years, scoring 21 goals and 59 points in 72 games between the Condors and the Rochester Americans. There’s little expectation that Savoie earns a spot on the team’s first power-play unit. Still, there’s reason to believe he should be viewed as a top candidate for the Oilers’ second iteration of their man-advantage deployments.

Savoie only has five NHL contests to his name, so it’s difficult to tell how effective he would be on the penalty kill. He finished last season with a +21 rating, which is impressive given that Bakersfield as a team finished with a -9 differential. He’s not an overly physical player, but his high pace and skating ability could be viewed as a positive variable to plug into a penalty kill unit.

At any rate, Edmonton is expected to insert some high-upside youthful talent into its group next season. Especially after acquiring the 2024-25 Hobey Baker Award winner, Isaac Howard, a few weeks ago from the Tampa Bay Lightning, the Oilers will have a lot of options to play around with in their top-six as they pursue their first Stanley Cup championship since 1990.

Edmonton Oilers Matt Savoie

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Michal Svrcek Expected To Remain In The SHL

July 19, 2025 at 6:01 pm CDT | by Brennan McClain Leave a Comment

At least one prospect from the Detroit Red Wings’ 2025 draft class has decided where he will play next season. According to a report from Mattias Persson of Hockey News (Sweden), forward Michal Svrcek will remain with the SHL’s Brynäs IF for another year.

For clarification, although there was a non-zero chance he’d make Detroit’s roster next season, there was no expectation he was going to. The OHL’s Windsor Spitfires had drafted Svrcek in the 2025 OHL Import Draft, which would have only required Red Wings’ staff to cross the Ambassador Bridge to watch him play.

The Red Wings selected Svrcek with the 119th overall pick of the 2025 NHL Draft after spending a large chunk of the season with Brynäs IF J20 of the J20 Nationell. He performed well for his age group, scoring 14 goals and 30 points in 30 games, with a +9 rating. Despite the team not advancing very far in the postseason, the Zilina, Slovakia native performed well, scoring two goals and adding four points in three postseason contests.

Svrcek spent a brief period with Brynäs IF’s professional team, scoring one goal and three points in 17 games, with a -1 rating. His lack of size was noticeable, but he sustained his high motor and remained a nuisance against the opposing team’s defense.

Detroit is making a gamble that Svrcek will be better served in the SHL, which is widely regarded as the second-best league outside of North America. There will likely be some growing pains, but it’ll be a shorter step to the NHL if he continues his development. In an interview on the Slovak television channel TVNoviny, Svrcek was quoted, saying, “This week I agreed with my agent and Detroit’s management that I will stay in Brynäs for another season, where I will try to start the season in the A-team.”

2025 NHL Draft| Detroit Red Wings| SHL Michal Svrcek

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Alex Ovechkin, Capitals Haven’t Had Extension Talks

July 19, 2025 at 3:53 pm CDT | by Josh Erickson 12 Comments

While not surprising news in the slightest, Capitals superstar Alex Ovechkin confirmed to reporters in Russia today that he hasn’t had extension talks as he gears up for the final season of the five-year, $47.5MM contract he signed back in 2021 (via Andrey Senchenko of RIA Novosti).

Ovechkin, who turns 40 in September, also seemed to imply that any talks on a new deal would wait until after the 2025-26 season ended. “A year will pass and we will think about it,” Ovechkin said (translated from Russian).

That’s in line with the wait-and-see approach that Ovechkin had said he’ll take ever since last season ended. The Capitals aggressively walked back an erroneous email that got sent out in late May claiming that 2025-26 would be his final NHL season, and he told Russian media last week that reports of his retirement were “pure nonsense.”

It’s an extremely familiar situation to the last time that Ovechkin’s deal was set to expire. He didn’t sign that five-year extension until the last day before free agency opened in 2021, so the two sides are obviously comfortable taking things down to the wire. There’s been no indication that Ovechkin would consider playing for any other NHL team than Washington; it’s long been speculated that he’d head to the KHL for 2026-27 if he doesn’t sign another contract with the Caps.

Delaying extension talks also doesn’t have nearly as much bearing on Washington’s team-building process as it did five years ago. Any subsequent contract for Ovechkin would only be for one year, allowing them to load up his deal with performance bonuses to keep his cap hit low if they end up making other moves that take up most of their space. The Caps also need to consider the future of defense cornerstone John Carlson, also now a pending UFA, as well as a new deal for promising center Connor McMichael, who’s a restricted free agent next summer.

Even with those names in play, the Caps are still extremely well set up for the 2026 offseason with $36.5MM available to fill seven roster spots, according to PuckPedia. That’s right around the median in terms of projected cap space next summer, but only six teams have more roster spots already accounted for.

Likely influencing Ovechkin’s desire to return to Washington will be his desire to chase 1,000 NHL goals, and whether that’s even achievable based on what he produces this year. Injuries limited him to 65 games in 2024-25, but he still managed 44 goals, remarkably his highest goal-per-game pace in five years and enough to make him the league’s all-time leader. He’s now at 897 in 1,491 games over his 20-year career.

Newsstand| Washington Capitals Alex Ovechkin

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KHL Notes: Mandolese, Gettinger, Laferriere, Barron, Oligny, Edmonds

July 19, 2025 at 2:55 pm CDT | by Josh Erickson 2 Comments

Multiple NHL-experienced players have signed on with Russian agency Winners in an effort to land deals in the KHL this summer, the agency announced. Among them is goaltender Kevin Mandolese, who hasn’t seen NHL ice since a three-game stint with the Senators in 2022-23 but has remained on NHL contracts since then.

The 24-year-old Mandolese has shown some promise as a depth netminder. A sixth-round pick by Ottawa in 2018, he did well in his only NHL action and recorded a .916 SV% and 3.29 GAA in that aforementioned trial. He remained in the Senators’ organization until last summer, when the Avalanche acquired his signing rights in a pick swap and subsequently signed him to a two-way deal for 2024-25.

He was recalled sparingly as injuries necessitated throughout the season, only getting into game action with the AHL’s Colorado Eagles. He fared decently well there but only got into 19 games, posting a 2.87 GAA and .903 SV% with an 11-6-0 record. Presumably looking for more stability than a two-way contract or an AHL deal for next season would provide him, Mandolese is now turning his attention toward overseas offers with some runway ahead of him to make an NHL return if he impresses.

Other names eyeing KHL moves:

  • Also on Winners’ list is veteran winger Timothy Gettinger. The 27-year-old was a longtime farmhand for the Rangers and became a semi-frequent call-up option for them a few years ago, recording one assist in 16 NHL games between the 2018-19 and 2021-22 seasons. The 6’6″, 216-lb forward hasn’t reached the top level since, though. Now an unrestricted free agent, his offensive numbers in the AHL have been on the decline. He’s spent the last two seasons on two-way deals for the Red Wings, recording 41 points in 109 games for AHL Grand Rapids – including just seven goals in 54 games last season.
  • Winners also now represents some players without NHL experience but who were still under contract with a club last season. One of them is 25-year-old forward Mathias Laferriere. He was a sixth-round pick of the Blues back in 2018 and has spent the vast majority of his four pro seasons in the AHL. The Penguins acquired him midway through last season in a swap of depth forwards, but he didn’t work his way up their depth chart and became a Group VI UFA. He managed 18 points in 55 AHL games last year between Springfield and Wilkes-Barre/Scranton.
  • After spending the last four seasons in the Coyotes/Utah organization, winger Travis Barron is now looking for a KHL contract. A 2016 seventh-round pick of the Avalanche, Barron played out his entry-level contract with them but did so primarily with the ECHL’s Utah Grizzlies. He wasn’t qualified upon expiry in 2021 and instead signed an AHL deal with the Tucson Roadrunners, where he played for two years before signing an NHL contract with their Arizona parent. He signed another two-way contract with Utah last summer but is now a Group VI UFA, and the Mammoth don’t appear interested in retaining him. The nephew of longtime NHLer Andrew Cassels had 23 points in 67 games for the Roadrunners last year.
  • Longtime AHLer Jimmy Oligny already made the jump overseas last summer but is now looking for tougher competition in Russia. The 5’11” defenseman was a frequent farmhand for the Jets, although not on an NHL contract. He was the captain of their AHL affiliate, the Manitoba Moose, from 2021-24 in a reduced role. His only NHL contract came in 2018-19 on a two-way deal with the Golden Knights. A veteran of 473 AHL games, the 32-year-old spent last year in Slovakia with HKM Zvolen and Austria with the ICEHL’s Graz 99ers.
  • Winger Lucas Edmonds was non-tendered by the Rangers last month following the expiry of his entry-level contract and is now looking at opportunities in Russia. The 24-year-old was a third-round pick by the Lightning in 2022 as an overager out of OHL Kingston, where he exploded for 113 points in 68 games in his final junior-eligible season. He never gained a true foothold in the AHL after turning pro, though, and was traded to New York midway through last year. He finished 2024-25 with only 11 points in 40 AHL games between Syracuse and Hartford.

KHL Jimmy Oligny| Kevin Mandolese| Lucas Edmonds| Mathias Laferriere| Tim Gettinger| Travis Barron

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Blake Wheeler Reaffirms Retirement

July 19, 2025 at 2:01 pm CDT | by Josh Erickson 4 Comments

July 19, 2025: Wheeler again ruled out a comeback bid when speaking with Cam Poitras and Jim Toth on 680 CJOB’s Jets at Noon program earlier this week. “I just haven’t felt like a rush to like make a formal announcement or anything,” Wheeler said. “But yeah, after my injury and kinda the way things ended last year, I just didn’t have anything left in the tank for it. So yeah, I was at peace with it almost immediately after last year and yeah, I’m just enjoying being a dad and kinda slowing things down a little bit, and being around my family.”

Dec. 19, 2024: Winger Blake Wheeler has all but officially decided on retirement, as Paul Friesen of The Winnipeg Sun relays. Neither Wheeler nor the NHL Players’ Association has released a statement. Still, the former Jets captain told Dan Leffelaar of the Beyond High Performance podcast earlier this week that “there’s only so much gas in the tank” emotionally for an 82-game regular season.

In July, Wheeler, 38, hit unrestricted free agency after completing a one-year, $1.1MM contract with the Rangers. He joined the Blueshirts for the final season of his NHL career after having the captaincy stripped from him in Winnipeg in 2022 and seeing the final season of his five-year, $41.25MM contract with an $8.25MM cap hit bought out a year later. There wasn’t much buzz around his services on the UFA market aside from a report in August from Shawn Hutcheon of The Fourth Period that the Bruins were considering extending him a professional tryout. One way or another that never came to fruition, and Wheeler didn’t appear with any club during training camp.

A serious leg injury sustained in February ended his final regular season prematurely. However, he did return to the active roster near the end of New York’s second-round playoff win over the Hurricanes. He was a frequent healthy scratch upon returning to the lineup, though, with a lone postseason appearance against the Panthers in Game 4 of the Eastern Conference Final likely standing as his final NHL appearance. In 54 regular-season appearances with the Rangers, he posted nine goals and 12 assists for 21 points with a +2 rating while averaging a career-low 12:43 per game.

Wheeler was a highly touted prospect. In the 2004 draft, the Coyotes selected him fifth overall, immediately after eventual longtime teammate Andrew Ladd was taken off the board by the Hurricanes. However, he opted not to sign in Phoenix. He took the long route through college at the University of Minnesota before becoming a free agent in 2008 and signing with the Bruins. 

The right-winger’s debut season was solid, posting 21 goals and 45 points with a +36 rating in 81 games as Boston won 53 games and finished atop the Eastern Conference. He was one of many future under-25 impact players on that Bruins squad, featuring Patrice Bergeron, Milan Lucic, Phil Kessel and David Krejčí in the infancies of their careers. However, after his goal-scoring dropped off slightly in his second and third years in the league, Boston traded him to the Thrashers before the 2011 deadline for Rich Peverley.

Wheeler racked up 17 points in 23 games down the stretch for Atlanta, giving Thrashers fans a bittersweet taste of things to come for his production before the team packed up and moved to Winnipeg in the offseason. Now entirely in the prime of his career at age 25, Wheeler kicked off a dominant nine-year stretch in Winnipeg that saw him record 569 points in 616 games, ranking eighth in the NHL scoring between the 2011-12 and 2018-19 campaigns. His 384 assists during that time were fourth, trailing only Nicklas Bäckström, Sidney Crosby and Claude Giroux. He received All-Star consideration eight years in a row and finished as high as eighth in Hart Trophy voting in 2017-18 when he led the league with 68 assists in 81 outings.

After a 20-goal, 91-point showing in 2018-19, 2019-20 spelled out the beginning of Wheeler’s decline. He still managed a respectable 65 points in 71 games that year before the COVID-19 pandemic hit. However, that was accompanied by an artificially high 12.2% shooting rate and a significant drop-off in his assist totals. He kept up reasonable offensive production in his final three seasons in Winnipeg, logging 161 points in 187 games. But the Minnesota native became a defensive liability as he aged and became a significant drag on the Jets’ possession quality control at even strength. Combined with just three playoff series wins during his time in Winnipeg, including a run to the 2018 Western Conference Final in which he had 21 points in 17 games, the Jets parted ways with their captain and bought him out.

While the end of Wheeler’s career may have been marred by declining all-around play and injuries, the former All-Star was a high-end top-line talent throughout the 2010s. The 6’5 “, 225-lb right-winger puts a bow on his career with 321 goals and 622 assists for 943 points in 1,172 regular-season games. He logged a +67 rating, posted 764 PIMs, and racked up nearly 3,000 career shots on goal, averaging 18:11 per game. He pairs that strong regular-season production with 10 goals and 45 points in 66 career postseason games. Pro Hockey Rumors congratulates Wheeler on a phenomenal career.

Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.

Boston Bruins| New York Rangers| Newsstand| Retirement| Winnipeg Jets Blake Wheeler

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Grigori Denisenko Linked To KHL

July 19, 2025 at 12:59 pm CDT | by Brian La Rose Leave a Comment

Once viewed as a key prospect for Florida, Grigori Denisenko’s stock has slid in recent years, even after a move to Vegas.  Now, it appears the unrestricted free agent could be heading back home as Artur Khairullin of Sport-Express reports (Telegram link) that the winger is in contract talks with Lokomotiv Yaroslavl of the KHL.

The 25-year-old was a first-round pick by the Panthers back in 2018, going 15th overall after showing promise in Yaroslav’s minor league system at the MHL level.  Denisenko made the jump to the KHL level the following year and spent two seasons there before coming to North America.

Denisenko spent most of his time with Florida in the minors, notching 63 points in 101 games over parts of three seasons while also getting into 26 games with the Panthers.  However, they waived him in training camp in 2023 with Vegas putting in a claim, picking up the two seasons of his one-way contract in the process.

The change of scenery didn’t help Denisenko stay in the NHL for long as just one day later, he was back on waivers with Florida declining to place a claim to take him back.

Denisenko played in just seven games for the Golden Knights over those two years, with only one of those coming last season.  He notched 10 goals and 14 assists in 42 games with AHL Henderson in 2024-25 before being moved to Nashville for future considerations back in February.  But the change of scenery didn’t yield any NHL playing time as Denisenko stayed in the minors, picking up 15 points in 23 games with Milwaukee.

Denisenko has actually seen NHL action in five straight years, his only five seasons in North America.  But the total of those outings was only 33 appearances, meaning that Denisenko qualified for Group Six unrestricted free agency this summer.  Rather than try to land a two-way deal with another NHL team in the hopes of earning an in-season recall while injuries arise, it appears he has decided that returning home to the program he had success with earlier in his career makes the most sense.

KHL Grigori Denisenko

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Kings To Ramp Up Extension Talks With Adrian Kempe

July 19, 2025 at 11:51 am CDT | by Brian La Rose 19 Comments

Kings forward Adrian Kempe is now eligible for a contract extension and is currently slated to be one of the better options in a 2026 UFA pool.  In an appearance on Sirius XM NHL Network Radio earlier this week (Twitter link), GM Ken Holland acknowledged that he’d like to get a deal done with Kempe and intends to ramp up discussions on that front soon.

The 28-year-old was a first-round pick by Los Angeles in 2014, going 29th overall.  At the time, he was playing a regular role in the SHL which is impressive in itself for a draft-eligible player but Kempe wasn’t producing much offensively.  Accordingly, one of the bigger questions at the time was around his potential to become a legitimate threat offensively, complementing his strong defensive game.

It has taken a while but Kempe has done just that.  After having limited offensive production in the minors soon after being drafted with AHL Manchester and his first few seasons with Los Angeles, Kempe had a breakout year in 2021-22, notching 35 goals and making his first (and only) All-Star appearance.  Considering his sluggish production beforehand, it was fair to question whether this was a blip or a sign of things to come so the two sides negotiated a four-year, $22MM contract that summer, one that bought the Kings two years of extra club control.

Kempe has certainly outperformed that contract in the first three seasons of it.  He has notched at least 67 points in each one and is coming off a 35-goal, 73-point campaign in 2024-25, one that saw him edge past 19 minutes per night of playing time, a career best.  Kempe has also been quite productive in the playoffs over that stretch, potting 13 goals and 10 assists in 17 postseason games, all against Edmonton.  Suffice it to say, he’s looking at a substantial raise next time out.

Earlier this offseason, AFP Analytics projected a seven-year, $64.225MM deal for Kempe, one that would carry a $9.175MM AAV.  When this contract kicks in for the 2026-27 campaign, the salary cap is expected to be $104MM at that time, a jump of $8.5MM.  This year, the biggest contract for a winger was Nikolaj Ehlers’ six-year, $51MM deal with Carolina (a cap hit of $8.5MM) so it would make sense that Kempe’s number should check in a bit above that, at least based on the way the market has operated this summer.

A contract in that price range would make Kempe their highest-paid forward and second-highest-paid player behind defenseman Drew Doughty.  With Kempe being among several contracts set to expire next summer, the Kings have nearly $38MM in room for that season, per PuckPedia, so Holland will have plenty of flexibility to work with to get a deal done for his top scorer from 2024-25.

Los Angeles Kings Adrian Kempe

19 comments

East Notes: Panarin, Senators, Prokhorov

July 19, 2025 at 9:35 am CDT | by Brian La Rose 2 Comments

Players in the final year of a multi-year contract are now eligible to sign contract extensions.  A few have but most of the headline names in the 2026 UFA class have yet to do so, including Rangers winger Artemi Panarin.  Vincent Z. Mercogliano of the Rockland/Westchester Journal News argues that New York should hold off on trying to get the 33-year-old locked up to a new deal right away, wondering if there might be an opportunity to get a younger top-liner on the open market next summer when they will have a significant amount of cap space.  Panarin saw his production drop considerably last season after putting up a career-high 120 points in 2023-24 but he still managed 37 goals and 52 assists in 80 games to lead New York in scoring once again.  Panarin has a $11.643MM cap charge and given that he’ll be 34 when his next deal starts, he’ll be in tough to match that price tag at that time.

Elsewhere in the Eastern Conference:

  • The Senators are making significant progress on securing the land agreement at LeBreton Flats as the site for their next arena, reports Postmedia’s Bruce Garrioch. The team has been in discussions for this parcel of land for several years now and signed an agreement in principle to buy the land last September, assuming that an agreement on the price could be reached.  After both sides had separate land valuations done that were well apart in value, there was still a gap to be bridged which apparently, progress is being made on.  The belief is that even if this is finalized, the Sens will remain in their current arena for at least the next five years.
  • Sabres prospect Yevgeni Prokhorov has signed a tryout deal with Dinamo Minsk of the KHL, per a team announcement on its Telegram page. The netminder was a seventh-round pick last month after spending last season in Dinamo’s MHL program where he posted a 2.19 GAA and a .903 SV% in 28 games.  Prokhorov was a first-round pick in last month’s CHL Import Draft, going 23rd overall to OHL Flint, leading to some speculation that he could come to North America but it appears that isn’t on the table at the moment.

Buffalo Sabres| KHL| New York Rangers| OHL| Ottawa Senators Artemi Panarin| Yevgeni Prokhorov

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