NHL Rumors - ProHockeyRumors.com

Free Agent Focus: Minnesota Wild

June 7, 2025 at 6:41 pm CDT | by Brennan McClain Leave a Comment

Free agency is now under a month away, and teams are looking ahead to when it opens. There will be several impact players set to hit the open market in July, while many teams also have key restricted free agents to re-sign. We continue our look around the NHL with an overview of the free agent situation for the Wild.

Key Restricted Free Agents

F Marco Rossi – Much has already been made of Rossi’s trip through restricted free agency this summer. The former ninth overall pick of the 2020 NHL Draft is reportedly looking for a seven-year, $49MM contract with the Wild this summer, and the team has countered with a five-year, $25MM deal. It doesn’t seem like a bridgeable gap at this point, though much can change over the summer months. Despite having his name in the rumor mill for a few years, the trade rumors surrounding Rossi are reaching a peak, meaning it’s more than likely he’s moved this summer.

F Declan Chisholm – Minnesota acquired Chisholm on waivers from the Winnipeg Jets last season, and he quietly had a productive season for the Wild in 2024-25. He reached a career-high in scoring with two goals and 12 points in 66 contests, averaging just shy of 17 minutes of ice time per game. Furthermore, even though he started many of his shifts in the defensive zone, Chisholm finished the season with a quality 50.4% CorsiFor% at even strength, and a 91.5% on-ice save percentage at even strength. Chisholm would make for a reliable depth option to retain on a saturated defensive core.

Other RFAs: F Graeme Clarke, F Adam Raska, F Michael Milne, F Luke Toporowski, D Ryan O’Rourke

Key Unrestricted Free Agents

F Gustav Nyquist – The second iteration of the Nyquist experiment in Minnesota didn’t go as well as the first time. The last time the Wild acquired Nyquist at the 2022-23 season, he scored one goal and five points in three regular season contests, with another five assists in six playoff games. This time around, the Halmstad, Sweden native scored two goals and seven points in 22 games after a trade from the Nashville Predators, and went scoreless in the Wild’s opening-round matchup against the Vegas Golden Knights. There will be better options available to Minnesota on the free agent market to address their secondary scoring needs.

F Justin Brazeau – Like Nyquist, the Wild acquired Brazeau at this year’s trade deadline from the Boston Bruins. He was tasked with giving Minnesota more grit and defensive prowess in their bottom-six for their playoff push, and that’s exactly what he gave them. His ice time was cut by more than four and a half minutes when he was moved to the Wild, and his scoring followed. Still, Brazeau managed nearly two hits a game for Minnesota, and added 22 more in six postseason contests.

D Jon Merrill – Merrill is unlikely to sign another contract with the Wild. Unfortunately, he doesn’t do all that much aside from eat limited minutes. He managed a quality 91.4% on-ice save percentage at even strength in 70 games, but that was only good for fifth on the team among blue liners, meaning the Wild can easily replace his value internally.

Other UFAs: F Travis Boyd, F Devin Shore, F Tyler Madden, D Cameron Crotty, G Troy Grosenick, G Dylan Ferguson

Projected Cap Space

The time has finally come for Minnesota to forget about the buyout burden from Zach Parise and Ryan Suter. After paying the pair of former-veterans nearly $15MM last season, the Wild’s payment drops down to $1.7MM for the 2025-26 season, giving them nearly $16MM in salary cap flexibility with few roster spots to fill. Minnesota have already placed a priority on signing superstar Kirill Kaprizov to a long-term extension this summer, so they’ll have to game out any free agent additions with that extension in mind.

Contract info courtesy of PuckPedia.

Photo courtesy of Nick Wosika-Imagn Images

Contract Negotiations Begin Between Blue Jackets, Daniil Tarasov

June 7, 2025 at 6:06 pm CDT | by Brennan McClain 4 Comments

According to a new article from Daria Tuboltseva of RG, the Columbus Blue Jackets have started contract negotiations with Daniil Tarasov. Tarasov’s three-year, $3.15MM contract concluded at the end of the 2024-25 campaign.

The Blue Jackets are in the driver’s seat for the negotiations. After a quality 2023-24 campaign, Tarasov had the worst season of his brief NHL career this past season, making him a candidate to be non-tendered this offseason if Tarasov doesn’t agree to Columbus’s offer.

In her interview with Tarasov, Tuboltseva quoted Tarasov saying, “Negotiations are ongoing. My agent is talking to the team’s management. There’s nothing concrete yet — just early discussions. The NHL season is still going, and the final is ahead. A lot will be decided later.”

It’s an interesting revelation given that Tarasov lost his role as the team’s backup toward the end of the season in favor of younger netminder Jet Greaves. The Russian goaltender concluded the 2024-25 season with a 7-10-2 record in 20 games with a .881 SV% and 3.54 GAA.

While already having Elvis Merzlikins and Greaves signed through next year, one could reasonably assume that the Blue Jackets will offer Tarasov no more than a league-minimum contract on a one-year deal. Tarasov didn’t give them confidence to re-sign him to a multi-year deal, and it may be the most he could find on the open market, anyway.

Still, that would be a healthy pay cut for Tarasov who made an AAV of $1.05MM for the last three years. He has not indicated if he’d return to the KHL if he doesn’t re-sign with Columbus, but it may be the most advantageous option for his professional career.

New York Rangers Expected To Have Busy Offseason

June 7, 2025 at 5:01 pm CDT | by Brennan McClain 5 Comments

According to Arthur Staple of The Athletic, the New York Rangers are expected to be one of the busier teams this offseason, along with the Buffalo Sabres, Seattle Kraken, and Utah Mammoth.

That wasn’t the only assertion Staple made in his report. He indicated that General Manager Chris Drury will look to shake up the roster and lists Igor Shesterkin, Adam Fox, and Artemi Panarin as the only true untouchables on the roster.

The news comes with little surprise given that the trio was inarguably the top three performers on a disappointing Rangers team this past season. Still, outside of those three, it would make little sense for New York to part ways with the likes of J.T. Miller, Vincent Trocheck, or Gabriel Perreault, either, for various reasons.

Additionally, moving on from higher-priced players such as Mika Zibanejad and Alexis Lafrenière could prove difficult this offseason, given the Rangers would undoubtedly be selling low on either piece. However, if New York frees up some cap space, Staple believes they already have a target in place.

Vladislav Gavrikov, who has spent the last two-and-a-half years with the Los Angeles Kings, would immediately become an interest for the Rangers with more cap flexibility. Gavrikov has already indicated he’d like to sign a longer-term extension with Los Angeles, but the new regime led by Ken Holland could have different ideas.

The Russian defensive defenseman would immediately become one of the top options on the blue line in a thin free agent class. Gavrikov averaged above a 50.0% mark in CorsiFor% at even strength during this time with the Kings, and an on-ice save percentage at even strength of 91.6%.

Given that the Rangers finished 27th in the league in shots against and 25th in high-danger scoring chances against during the 2024-25 season, Gavrikov would help alleviate many of their issues. Still, assuming Gavrikov signs around the projected mark between $6.5MM and $7.5MM, the Rangers would have difficulty making that work at the present with only $8.4MM in cap space heading into the offseason.

Senators Not Planning To Use Full Amount Of Cap Space This Summer

June 7, 2025 at 4:00 pm CDT | by Brian La Rose 4 Comments

With a $7.5MM increase to the Upper Limit of the salary cap for next season (from $88MM to $95.5MM), there is a big expectation of spending going up across the league. But not every team is obviously going to spend to the new ceiling and it appears the Senators will be one of them. Speaking with reporters including Postmedia’s Janson Duench, GM Steve Staios indicated that he’s not expecting to spend to the maximum:

“It’s probably not going to be up there and we’ll leave ourselves a little bit. You got to remember, when I first got here, we had no room and it’s nice to be able to create some flexibility, lengthen the roster, lengthen the lineup and give ourselves some options.”

While Staios spoke of staying enough below the cap to create some flexibility for in-season movement, owner Michael Andlauer went a step further, noting to Sportsnet’s Alex Adams that they are a “cash over cap” team at the moment in terms of their spending which is playing a role in things.

Per PuckPedia, the Senators have just over $80.47MM in cap spending for next season. However, their actual cash spending on their roster and dead cap spending (between a salary retention and a buyout) is a fair bit higher, checking in at $85.675MM.

Notably, the Sens still have several roster spots to fill, including re-signing RFA winger Fabian Zetterlund and UFA forward Claude Giroux with discussions underway on both those fronts. Between getting new deals done for them and rounding out the group, it’s quite possible that their actual cash spending runs closer to the $100MM mark. For a smaller market team like Ottawa, it appears that’s a concern.

With that in mind, it wouldn’t be shocking to see Staios trying to backload some contracts where possible to try to balance out the cap and cash spending numbers to an extent which could also open up more budget room to spend closer to the Upper Limit. Not all players are open to doing so, of course, which could limit them in free agency. Alternatively, if there is a player-for-player swap that presents itself, acquiring someone with a cash cost below the cap could become more appealing.

With more than $15MM in cap space, it’s fair to say that the Sens likely still have considerable spending capacity within their budget. But as names start coming off the board over the next couple of months, it appears that Ottawa won’t be using all of its spending flexibility during that time.

Oilers Working On Extension With Trent Frederic

June 7, 2025 at 2:57 pm CDT | by Brian La Rose 4 Comments

The Oilers acquired Trent Frederic from Boston leading up to the trade deadline with an eye on bolstering their bottom six for the playoffs. A pending unrestricted free agent, it appears he could be sticking around in Edmonton a little longer. In today’s 32 Thoughts podcast (audio link), Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman relays that word around the rink on Friday is that the forward might be sticking around for next season although an extension isn’t expected to be announced during the Stanley Cup Final.

The 27-year-old had a breakout year in 2023-24, notching 18 goals and 22 assists in 82 games with Boston while also chipping in with 204 hits. Considering he put up 17 goals and 31 points the year before, it looked like he had arrived as a key bottom-six piece for the Bruins while making his $2.3MM cap charge a team-friendly one.

But things didn’t go as well this season. His production dropped to just eight goals and seven assists in 57 games before the trade deadline but Edmonton liked his track record enough to send a second-round pick, a fourth-round selection, plus prospects Shane Lachance and Max Wanner in a three-team trade to acquire him at 75% retention along with winger Max Jones.

Frederic was injured at the time of the trade and had to wait nearly a month to make his Edmonton debut. It wasn’t a great one as he was injured once again after just 7:10 of playing time, keeping him out of the lineup for the rest of the regular season.

However, Frederic was cleared to return for the playoffs and he has played a regular role for them, playing in all 18 games thus far. His production in those outings has been limited to just one goal and three assists in 11:32 per night of action although he also has 66 hits. While he’s doing alright, he’s also not building back some of the value he may have lost during the regular season.

That makes the possibility of an extension look a little more palatable for the Oilers. They will have a little over $12MM in cap space this summer, per PuckPedia. However, a significant chunk of that will need to go to pending RFA Evan Bouchard. That won’t leave a lot of room to pay Frederic a price tag around what his value might be on the open market. But if he’s open to a short-term deal to try to rebuild some value and play on a contender, that might be enough to make something work between Frederic and the Oilers over the next few weeks.

Metropolitan Notes: Shabanov, Gill, Boilard

June 7, 2025 at 1:48 pm CDT | by Brian La Rose Leave a Comment

Russian center Maxim Shabanov’s KHL contract expired at the end of May, making him an unrestricted free agent. Several NHL teams have shown interest and it looks like his search for a new club could be nearing the finish line. Sport-Express’ Igor Eronko reports that the Flyers are expected to sign the 24-year-old although Kevin Kurz of The Athletic relays (Twitter link) that nothing is done yet although the team is hopeful that they’ll land him. Shabanov finished third this season in KHL scoring with 23 goals and 44 assists in 65 games and followed that up by finishing second in playoff points with 10 goals and 10 helpers in 21 contests. Regardless of whether he signs with Philadelphia or another team, Shabanov will be capped at signing a one-year, entry-level contract.

Offseason Checklist: Minnesota Wild

June 7, 2025 at 12:25 pm CDT | by Brian La Rose 4 Comments

The offseason has arrived for all but two teams now with the playoffs nearing an end. Accordingly, it’s time to examine what they will need to accomplish over the coming weeks with free agency fast approaching. Next up is a look at Minnesota.

This season saw some ups and downs for Minnesota. They had some injuries to key players while some other core pieces took steps back. But in the end, they were able to lock down a playoff spot despite their offensive struggles and gave Vegas a good run in the first round before falling in six. GM Bill Guerin now has much more cap flexibility moving forward; putting that to good use is a big chunk of their checklist for this offseason.

Pick A Direction With Rossi

For a team that has had challenges developing centers, it feels like Marco Rossi has perpetually been on thin ice with the Wild. Yes, at 5’9, he’s undersized for the position but he was the ninth-overall pick back in 2020 and despite a health scare soon after, he has become a legitimate middleman at the top level.

Rossi became a full-time NHL player in 2023-24 and had a solid rookie campaign with 21 goals and 40 points, earning him some down-ballot Calder Trophy votes. He was even better this season, tallying 24 goals and 60 points, good for second in points on the team. However, part of the current question stems from his usage in the playoffs when he went down to just 12 minutes a night after averaging 18:15 per contest during the regular season.

On the contract side, various reports have suggested that Rossi’s camp is using teammate Matt Boldy as a desired comparable in negotiations at seven years and $7MM per season. Meanwhile, Guerin is believed to have offered five years at $5MM in-season, an offer that was rejected. Notably, that would have set Rossi up to hit the open market heading into his age-29 season. A bridge proposal is believed to have been pitched as well but with his playoff usage, finding a number that works for both sides will be tough.

There are two ways the Wild can go here. The first is that they can work out a long-term deal to the satisfaction of both sides. With a bridge agreement looking unlikely, the second is that they find a suitable trade. It’s not often that young centers with his pedigree become available and with many teams – rebuilders and contenders alike – needing help down the middle, Rossi should command a strong return if that’s the route they choose.

However, it would also open up another spot at center to try to fill in a summer that should already see Guerin looking to add an impact middleman even if Rossi stays. Landing one isn’t easy; landing two would be that much harder, even with nearly $16MM in cap space, per PuckPedia. While restricted free agents can drag out negotiations, this feels like a situation that needs to come to a head before July 1st comes around.

Work On Kaprizov Extension

For a couple of years now, extension discussions with Kirill Kaprizov have been a key point of speculation. When the time comes, will he be willing to commit to a long-term agreement or would he look to hit the open market and perhaps move to a bigger market? Those questions have come even with Kaprizov consistently saying he wants to stay; including after the playoffs last month when he stated that “I love everything here. It should be all good.” Well, come July, we’ll start to get a first sense of where things could go as that’s when he becomes eligible to sign a contract extension.

The 28-year-old has been one of the most productive players in the NHL on a per-game basis over the past four years (1.27 points per game in 264 outings) although he has only had one season with more than 80 games in that stretch. This season, he missed half the games but still managed an impressive 56 points in 41 outings. He’s a premier winger in the NHL, as long as he’s healthy enough to stay in the lineup. But while the track record of injuries is worth noting, it’s unlikely to materially affect any extension talks.

For one more year, Kaprizov will make $9MM but his next contract will almost certainly blow past that by a significant margin. With the projected growth of the salary cap and the potential for a record-setting contract coming to a winger this summer (Mitch Marner), finding comparables is a bit tricky. Marner’s next deal seems likely to check in somewhere between 14% and 15% of the Upper Limit, a number that checks in above Artemi Panarin (the current record-holder for richest winger deal). David Pastrnak and William Nylander are over $11MM apiece but in the old salary cap environment, they don’t hold up as well but their cap percentages start with a 13.

With the 2026-27 cap being projected to land around $104MM, we can start to come up with a framework for Kaprizov’s next contract. At 13%, a new deal would be $13.52MM per season. Speculatively, that feels low, especially with the expectation that Marner could beat that this summer. At 14%, the cost jumps to $14.56MM and at 15%, $15.6MM, a number that feels on the high side, especially for an early extension. $15MM (14.4% of the cap) has been speculated as a reasonable middle ground, an increase of $6MM per season. That would be the richest deal in NHL history but if Minnesota is hesitant to give it to him, his camp knows someone else will later on. Are both sides prepared to work something out around that price point? We’ll find out this summer.

Add Scoring Help

Scoring has been an issue for Minnesota in recent years. They haven’t been in the top 20 league-wide in goals scored for the last three seasons while they saw their goal output drop from 248 in 2023-24 to just 225 this season. Most of the time, that firepower isn’t good enough to get into the playoffs. While Kaprizov missing half the season contributed to some of that drop, they’re still a below-average team in that regard.

With Zeev Buium joining the Wild full-time next season, they probably don’t need to do much on the back end. They may try to re-sign RFA Declan Chisholm but that’s about it. That means the bulk of that cap space can be spent up front. If Rossi re-signs for something close to his asking price, that should still leave enough for an impactful top-six addition. Again, ideally that’s a center but they’re not in a spot where they can be too choosy. Even if it’s a winger, an improvement would be great. And if Rossi does wind up moving, they’d need a couple of top-six pickups.

This season, Minnesota had just four players reach the 40-point mark after having seven get there the year before. In a perfect world, there’s some internal improvement from some of their underachievers; deepening their forward group could help in that regard. Now that they have some long-desired flexibility cap-wise, they need to spend it on adding some offensive firepower.

Look Into Goaltending Insurance

When the Wild brought back Marc-Andre Fleury for one more season, the plan was clear. Jesper Wallstedt would get one more year in the minors and then move up. The two-year, $4.4MM contract they handed him soon after only cemented that. That contract was a head-scratcher then (following the one Yaroslav Askarov got from San Jose which was also a puzzling one) and it looks much worse now as Wallstedt struggled mightily with AHL Iowa this season, posting a 3.59 GAA and a .879 SV% in 27 games in the minors. Had they waited to sign him until now, the cost would have been a lot lower.

Is Guerin comfortable with promoting Wallstedt to the full-time backup spot behind Filip Gustavsson coming off the year he just had? Given his draft stock as a first-round pick back in 2021, it’s fair to say he’s still envisioned as someone in the long-term plans for Minnesota between the pipes. In that lens, it’d be reasonable to think they would want to give him the first crack at the spot. If that’s the case, then the goaltending depth they’d need would be a veteran AHL starter who could come up in a pinch with their other two signed netminders (Samuel Hlavaj and Riley Mercer) not quite NHL-ready.

But it’s worth noting that Wallstedt is still waiver-exempt for next season. In theory, they could send him down to Iowa again, lowering his cap charge in the process to $1.05MM. That would then allow them to try to pursue a more proven option. That would mean spending less on the forward position but would allow them to have a bit more piece of mind at the backup spot while giving Wallstedt a chance to bounce back from his tough year in Iowa. Either way, they’re likely to add another netminder in the coming weeks.

Photo courtesy of Nick Wosika-Imagn Images.

Oilers Sign Viljami Marjala

June 7, 2025 at 11:15 am CDT | by Brian La Rose 1 Comment

The Oilers have made another addition to their prospect pool. The team announced that they have signed forward Viljami Marjala to a two-year, entry-level contract. PuckPedia reports (Twitter link) that the deal will carry a cap hit of $872.5K and an AAV of $975K including his signing bonus and games-played bonus.

The 22-year-old was originally a fifth-round pick by Buffalo back in 2021, going 159th overall. However, the Sabres elected not to sign him by last Sunday’s deadline, making Marjala an unrestricted free agent and Edmonton quickly pounced.

Marjala finished fifth in Finland’s Liiga in assists this season with 44, two ahead of defenseman Atro Leppanen, who also signed with the Oilers recently. However, he had just eight goals with TPS Turku, less than half of the 17 he put up in 2023-24 which may have played a role in Buffalo letting him go.

Marjala signed with Karpat in Finland a little more than a month ago, inking a one-year deal plus an option that evidently contained an NHL out clause. It’s possible that Edmonton will loan him back there for next season, or they could have him start with AHL Bakersfield to get his feet wet at that level. It won’t be Marjala’s first taste of hockey in North America, however, as he spent two years in the QMJHL, the first of which helped get him originally drafted.

Spencer Carbery Wins 2025 Jack Adams Award

June 7, 2025 at 10:07 am CDT | by Brian La Rose 10 Comments

In recent days, the NHL has been revealing some of its end-of-season award winners heading into next week’s NHL Awards show. Today, the league announced that Capitals head coach Spencer Carbery has won the 2025 Jack Adams Award as “the NHL coach adjudged to have contributed the most to his team’s success,” as selected by the NHL Broadcasters’ Association.

Carbery recently wrapped up his second season behind the bench in Washington and it was a very successful one. After the Capitals put up 91 points in 2023-24, they were 20 points better this year, good for tops in the Metropolitan Division and the Eastern Conference while finishing second overall to Winnipeg. They improved significantly offensively with a jump of 68 goals compared to the year before while being one of the top squads in goal differential and penalty killing. While voting was done before the playoffs, Washington made it to the second round before being ousted by Carolina.

With that improvement, Carbery was the runaway winner for the award, finishing with 81 first-place votes out of 103 and appeared on all but one ballot, good for 464 voting points. He becomes the fourth Washington coach to win the Jack Adams, joining Bryan Murray (1984), Bruce Boudreau (2008), and Barry Trotz (2016). Carbery also becomes the first head coach to win Coach of the Year at all of the ECHL, AHL, and NHL levels.

Jets head coach Scott Arniel finished second in the voting, garnering a total of 16 first-place selections while being on 81 ballots overall, earning him 249 voting points. Canadiens bench boss Martin St. Louis was the other finalist but came a distant third with just two first-place selections and 66 voting points while being picked on 34 ballots. Jim Montgomery (Blues) and Dean Evason (Blue Jackets) rounded out the top five.

The NHL Awards show will run prior to Game 4 of the Oilers/Panthers series at 5 PM CT on Thursday with the full list of all award winners being revealed at that time.

Penguins Notes: Free Agency, Leone, Novak

June 7, 2025 at 9:27 am CDT | by Brian La Rose Leave a Comment

The Penguins will enter this summer with around $24.5MM in cap space, per PuckPedia. At first glance, given their veteran core, it could be inferred that Pittsburgh could be active on the open market to try add a couple of pieces to boost their chances of getting back to the playoffs next season. However, speaking with reporters Friday including Josh Yohe of The Athletic (subscription link), GM Kyle Dubas indicated that he doesn’t expect to be particularly active in free agency unless they’d be getting one of the younger players who deserves some term on a contract. Instead, he noted that Pittsburgh is likely to be more active on the trade front and that discussions on that front have picked up recently. No team has more draft picks over the next three years than the Penguins so it wouldn’t be surprising to see some of them converted into players or prospects who are closer to being NHL-ready in the coming weeks.

Headlines