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AHL Mandating Cut-Resistant Neckwear For Players, Officials

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The AHL announced today that all players and officials will be required to wear cut-resistant neckwear during games starting this season. The top feeder league’s Board of Governors unanimously approved the policy.

It’s the first time a North American professional league has instituted such a rule regarding neckwear. The AHL began requiring its players and officials to wear cut-resistant socks and wrist sleeves starting last year.

The NHL doesn’t require either form of protection to be worn, but they’ve been spiking in popularity in recent years – especially the latter. Neck protection is also quickly becoming common in the league following the death of former NHLer Adam Johnson last year due to a skate laceration to his neck suffered while playing in the United Kingdom’s Elite Ice Hockey League.

Mandatory cut protection is gradually rising from the lower levels of the game. USA Hockey announced last month that beginning Aug. 1, all youth, high school, and junior hockey players competing within the organization’s purview must wear neck protection during all games and practices. The AHL’s release didn’t specify whether practices are included in the mandate.

It’s a trend that will likely continue, although there’s no indication yet when the NHL may follow its primary feeder league in instituting such a rule. Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly said last year that the league had initiated discussions with the NHLPA, but it doesn’t appear they’ve gone anywhere since. The overwhelming majority of NHLers were against a full mandate for neck protection in a poll conducted by The Athletic in February.

East Notes: Suzuki, Falk, Pulkkinen

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The Canadiens essentially picked up two new top-six forwards, which should give them the offense they need to challenge for a playoff spot this season, captain Nick Suzuki told Arpon Basu of The Athletic.

“I think we can beat anybody,” Suzuki said. “I thought last year we competed against really good teams all the time. We’re still a young group, but with the addition of (Patrik Laine), and (Kirby Dach) coming back up front, it makes our forward unit look pretty scary.”

Montreal’s offense is largely headed in the right direction, especially with the emergence of 2022 first-overall pick Juraj Slafkovsky as a legitimate top-six option. But last year, especially with Dach sustaining a season-ending knee injury in the second game of the campaign, their top unit of Slafkovsky, Suzuki and Cole Caufield was their only true impact line. As Basu points out, a more legitimate secondary attack spearheaded by Dach and Laine should force defending teams to spread their matchups, alleviating some defensive pressure against the Suzuki line.

Elsewhere in the Eastern Conference:

  • Former Sabres depth defenseman Justin Falk has returned to the team as a scout, reports Lance Lysowski of The Buffalo News. Falk, 35, retired after splitting the 2019 season between the Avalanche and Senators organizations and has spent the last three years as the general manager and head coach of Manitoba’s Winkler Flyers, a Junior ’A’ club. He spent two years as a Sabre, posting a goal and nine assists with a -19 rating in 98 games in the 2016-17 and 2017-18 campaigns. He made 279 NHL appearances over a 10-year career, also suiting up for the Avs, Blue Jackets, Rangers, and Wild.
  • Defenseman Jesse Pulkkinen became the first member of the Islanders’ 2024 draft class to put pen to paper on his entry-level contract last month, but his on-ice debut with the team may have to wait. The 19-year-old has sustained a lower-body injury that may prevent him from participating in training camp, as relayed by Stefen Rosner of The Hockey News. The overage 6’6″, 220-lb blue liner was the No. 54 overall selection earlier this summer and will be loaned back to his Finnish club, JYP, in the fall.

Canadiens Kept Signing Rights To Ty Smilanic, Relinquished Blake Biondi

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August 15 free agency for unsigned NHL-drafted players exiting their NCAA careers is one of the most complex parts of the Collective Bargaining Agreement. Public resource lists (including ours) do their best to encapsulate which players come off teams’ reserve lists that day each year, but they often need a few corrections after the fact.

The Canadiens are one of those teams that need a revision. They were expected to lose the signing rights to center prospect Ty Smilanic, who spent last year with their ECHL affiliate, the Trois-Rivières Lions, after a three-year collegiate career. However, the team confirmed to Marco D’Amico of Responsible Gambling that they’ve been able to retain his NHL signing rights, keeping him off the open market.

That’s because the stipulation that allows unsigned collegiate players to become free agents after their NCAA career ends hinges on them obtaining a degree, something Smilanic never did. After transferring from Quinnipiac to Wisconsin in 2022 and turning pro with the Lions less than a year later, the 22-year-old pivot never graduated.

Smilanic remains Canadiens property in the NHL’s eyes, but today’s news doesn’t change the fact that he doesn’t have a valid contract signed for this season. He’s coming off a disappointing end to his collegiate tenure and an even tougher transition to the pros, recording just seven points in 31 games with Trois-Rivières last year. A third-round pick of the Panthers in 2020, Montreal acquired his signing rights in the March 2022 trade that sent defenseman Ben Chiarot to the Sunshine State.

While they’ve retained Smilianic, they let another 22-year-old center hit free agency despite being able to keep him. That’s Blake Biondi, who was eligible to remain on the Canadiens’ reserve list for another year after recently transferring to Notre Dame for his fifth and final NCAA season in 2024-25. But the Canadiens had seen enough of their 2020 fourth-round selection, filing paperwork to relinquish his signing rights and open up a reserve list spot.

Biondi spent the past four seasons playing for his hometown University of Minnesota–Duluth. In his draft year, he was named the state’s best high school hockey player after scoring 76 points in 25 games for Hermantown High, but he couldn’t consistently perform offensively for the Bulldogs. He recorded 30 goals and 58 points in 119 games there.

Cheveldayoff: Jets Never Received Reason For Rutger McGroarty’s Unwillingness To Sign

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Jets general manager Kevin Cheveldayoff spoke to members of the media yesterday, including Mike McIntyre of the Winnipeg Free Press, noting that Rutger McGroarty’s camp never disclosed why the 2022 first-round pick was unwilling to sign in Winnipeg despite being asked by the GM multiple times.

“We were at the draft combines and got a text from his agent (Pat Brisson) that he wanted to meet… he informed us that Rutger had said that he didn’t intend to sign,” Cheveldayoff said (via Connor Hrabchak of The Hockey Writers). “That’s the first inkling that we got that there was nothing that was going to come to fruition there. We sat down and asked the agent why, and he said he didn’t have an answer. He didn’t have a reason. I went through a litany of questions to the agent to see – was it player development? Was it that we didn’t burn a year [off his entry-level contract]? He said no, no, no, it just didn’t feel right.”

When the news of McGroarty’s desired exit from Winnipeg first broke before the draft, a league source told Murat Ates of The Athletic that the player felt “his path to the NHL is best suited in another organization.” Ates wrote that the Jets felt the AHL was the best place for McGroarty to play in 2024-25, an outcome he wasn’t interested in. Thus, he returned to the University of Michigan for his junior season. However, he’ll reverse that decision and turn pro after signing his entry-level contract with the Penguins immediately following yesterday’s trade.

But Cheveldayoff’s transparency about his conversations with Brisson indicates this wasn’t a new rift between McGroarty and the Jets, even if it wasn’t brought up until recently. Both Brisson and McGroarty said his hesitations about signing with Winnipeg stemmed from his first development camp showing with the club, Cheveldayoff relayed.

The Jets can be thankful that McGroarty’s stellar play in Ann Arbor the last two seasons helped them get a fair return for his services. A strong all-around forward who can play both center and left wing, he’s coming off a banner 2023-24 campaign that saw him finish second on the Wolverines in scoring with 52 points (16 goals, 36 assists) in 36 games with a +17 rating. He also captained the United States at the World Junior Championship, scoring five goals and four assists for nine points in seven games to lead the Americans to a gold medal.

One of McGroarty’s under-discussed collegiate achievements was his ability to maintain a physical style of play without harming his team by racking up penalty minutes. The Nebraska native racked up 65 PIMs in 54 games during his draft year with the U.S. National U18 Development Team but logged just 24 PIMs in 75 games over his two years in Michigan.

He’s a tough loss, but the Jets recouped another blue-chip forward prospect in Brayden Yager to take his place. He’s not quite as pro-ready as McGroarty, but the 19-year-old could answer Winnipeg’s long-time hole at the second-line center position as soon as 2025-26. After posting 95 points in 57 games with the Western Hockey League’s Moose Jaw Warriors and leading them to their first WHL championship last year, he’ll likely get a long look in the role during training camp and could end up on the opening night roster. A nine-game trial to avoid burning the first year of his entry-level contract is possible for Yager, who needs to be returned to Moose Jaw if he’s not on the NHL roster this season.

Notably, Winnipeg also lands a player eager to return to his Central Canada home. “You see the fan base in Winnipeg, it’s pretty special,” Yager, a Saskatchewan native, told team color analyst Mitchell Clinton. “Especially in the playoffs – the whiteout and everything – it’s crazy. So I’m super excited.”

DEL’s Dusseldorfer EG Signs Tyler Angle

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Düsseldorfer EG of Germany’s Deutsche Eishockey Liga have signed center/left winger Tyler Angle, per Tobias Kemberg of D.Sports. It’s a one-year deal for the Niagara Falls native, who heads overseas early in his career.

Angle, 23, had spent the last four years playing in the Blue Jackets organization. He played mostly for their AHL affiliate, the Cleveland Monsters, but he did log two games with Columbus in each of the past two seasons.

Early on, Angle looked like he might be a gem after falling to the seventh round of the 2019 draft, selected on the heels of a strong season with the Ontario Hockey League’s Windsor Spitfires. With the OHL pausing its operations for 2020-21 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Angle turned pro early on an amateur tryout with the Monsters. He immediately made an impact, posting 11 goals and 24 points in 23 games, leading the team in scoring during the shortened campaign.

Angle’s entry-level contract with the Blue Jackets went into effect in 2021-22, but the 5’10”, 172-lb forward never regained his scoring touch. His point-per-game production nearly halved, limited to 11 goals and 37 points in 71 contests the following year. By last season, Angle was no longer a fixture in the Cleveland lineup, only playing in 40 of 72 games and recording 16 points (eight goals, eight assists) with a -11 rating. On the heels of that performance, the Jackets opted not to issue him a qualifying offer when his ELC expired this summer, making him an unrestricted free agent.

His brief NHL usage did yield a goal, coming against the Sabres on April 14, 2023. He posted a -3 rating across his four appearances, five shots on goal, and an average of 9:54 per game while going 11-for-27 in the dot (40.7%).

Angle joins a Düsseldorf club headlined by former Avalanche defenseman Kyle Cumiskey on the back end. He’ll reunite with center Justin Richards, who played out 2022-23 with the Monsters on a two-way deal with Columbus and signed a deal with the German side earlier this month.

Snapshots: Swayman, Brodzinski, Yager

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Boston Bruins goaltender Jeremy Swayman is at risk of entering September without a contract for the season. But team president and NHL Hall of Famer Cam Neely isn’t bothered by negotiations dragging on. In an appearance on The Rich Shertenlieb Show, Neely said, “Something will get done. There’s no question. I mean, not every negotiation is as smooth as you’d like it. I know our fan base would certainly love to have something done by now. But I’m fully confident that both sides will come to an agreement before too long here.”

Swayman has expressed confidence of his own that a deal will get done – making the ongoing holdout a bit surprising. The Bruins carry $8.64MM in projected cap space, per PuckPedia, and a full roster signed otherwise. That should be plenty of budget to sign Swayman to, at least, a short-term deal – perhaps an indication that contract details like signing bonuses are the impeding factor. Swayman has had a stellar NHL career through three seasons, posting a .919 save percentage in 132 games, but he’s yet to exceed 45 starts in a single season. That’s set to change in a big way with Linus Ullmark now in Ottawa – and if Swayman can withstand the barrage is yet to be seen.

Other notes from around the league:

  • College free agent Bryce Brodzinski has signed a one-year deal with the AHL’s Ontario Reign. The Philadelphia Flyers drafted Brodzinski in the seventh round of the 2019 NHL Draft, but didn’t sign before August 1, 2024 deadline – pushing him into free agency after a five-year career at the University of Minnesota. Brodzisnki scored more-and-more in every season, ultimately posting a career-high 36 points in 39 games this year. He’ll look to continue growing next year, stepping into a competitive Ontario lineup where he’ll battle Los Angeles Kings prospects Martin Chromiak, Koehn Ziemmer, and Kaleb Lawrence for ice time on the wings.
  • The newest top Winnipeg Jets prospect, Brayden Yager, will either play in the NHL or CHL this season Jets GM Kevin Cheveldayoff shares with The Athletic’s Murat Ates. Yager remains eligible for the NHL-CHL agreement by just four days – keeping him eligible to return to the Moose Jaw Warriors, where he won a WHL championship last season. Yager played a pivotal role in the ring-winning year, scoring a career-high 35 goals and 95 points in 57 regular-season games and 27 points in 20 playoff games. He’s lived up to his 14th-overall standing thus far, and will have now receive a chance to break into the next step as part of a new team.

Evening Notes: Lankinen, Nichushkin, Pieniniemi

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The Vancouver Canucks are narrowing in on a deal with goaltender Kevin Lankinen reports CHEK’s Rick Dhaliwal. He’ll support the team as they await the return of Thatcher Demko, who is taking longer than expected to recover from his knee injury.

A deal in Vancouver would move Lankinen on from four seasons in the Central Division – split between the Chicago Blackhawks and Nashville Predators. He debuted as Chicago’s starter in the shortened 2020-21 season, recording 17 wins and a .909 save percentage across 37 games. It was an impressive start to the undrafted free agent’s career, though not strong enough to hang onto the starting role when Chicago signed Marc-Andre Fleury that summer. Lankinen has been a proud backup ever since, with his ice time dwindling to just 24 games with Nashville last season.

Vancouver could offer Lankinen his first true shot at a starting role in a while – though he’ll have to beat out postseason wonder Arturs Silovs. Silovs took over for Demko in last year’s Stanley Cup Playoffs with just nine career games to his name. He’d end up playing 10 more, posting a .898 save percentage and showing plenty of ability to win games when his team needed him. Silovs will be the favorite for the starting role entering camp, but Lankinen could offer quick relief should he struggle.

Other notes from around the league:

  • Sergey Fedotov, a former scout for the Russian National Team, told Russia’s Sports.ru that Colorado Avalanche winger Valeri Nichushkin will be ready to return to the NHL in November. Nichushkin entered the NHL Player’s Assistance Program in May, missing out on the bulk of the postseason after a red-hot start – nine goals and 10 points in eight games. Nichushkin scored a collective 63 points in 62 games this season and will stand as a top option in Colorado’s lineup when he returns, though speculation will remain until the team formally announces his return.
  • Pittsburgh Penguins defense prospect Emil Pieniniemi – the 91st pick in the 2023 NHL Draft – has signed with the OHL’s Kingston Frontenacs for the 2024-25 season. The move kicks off his career in North America after growing up through Kärpät’s junior system and playing 39 games with the Liiga club. He scored six points in those appearances but has already looked more impressive in international play this summer – posting four points in four games during Finland’s U20 friendlies. He’ll now look to maintain that scoring momentum into the much-quicker-paced CHL next season.

Avalanche, Mikko Rantanen Expected To Ramp Up Extension Talks Soon

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The Colorado Avalanche have already engaged in extension talks with 2025-pending free agent Mikko Rantanen, though the star winger expects talks will gain a lot more momentum when the team comes back together. He spoke about next season and his looming contract with the Finnish news outlet Turan Sanomat, and his remarks were translated by Evan Rawal of Colorado Hockey Now. Per Rawal, Rantanen said, “We’ve already started a little, but we haven’t had any intensive discussions yet. They will surely speed up here in time.” Rantanen went on to share his excitement for next year’s 4 Nations Face-Off and 2026’s Winter Olympics.

Rantanen is one of many stars entering the last year of their contracts, but few have made such a statement about their current deals. Rantanen signed his current deal – a six-year, $55MM contract – in 2019 after recording the second 80-point season of his then three-year career. It was clear that he was set for stardom, and while fans had to wait through injuries and COVID-19 limiting seasons, the star Finn finally showed his strength in Colorado’s pursuit of the 2022 Stanley Cup. He was perhaps the most influential player on the roster, second to Nathan MacKinnon, scoring a career-high 36 goals and 92 points in 75 regular season games, then adding 25 points in 20 postseason games. The performance proved everyone’s suspicions – that Rantanen, even at a $9.25MM cap hit, was likely underpaid. He’s only continued to improve in the years since, posting a new career-high of 55 goals and 105 points last season, then returning for 42 goals and 104 points this year.

Rantanen compliments his sky-high scoring with great off-puck physicality and an appreciation for defense. Those traits place Rantanen as both a pillar of the Avalanche lineup and their biggest to-do ahead of the 2025 summer. But finding a price won’t be easy, especially given the lack of precedent for such a high-scorer. Oilers’ star Leon Draisaitl seems like the best comparable, though he’s in his own round of extension negotiations. Early rumors have placed Draisaitl’s next deal around $12.5MM. That could provide Colorado with a helpful baseline should Draisaitl sign soon, though it’s likely that Edmonton is watching Rantanen’s negotiations with the same scrutiny.

While the two sides sort through a standoff with their secondary stars, Rantanen will look to continue his domination of the NHL’s Western Conference. He emphasized to the Turan Sanomat that his goal is to only get faster and stronger, saying, “In the NHL, the game is going faster all the time, and as a result, Explosiveness is a big part of how the game is developing. You can’t forget that there are 82 games in the regular season. So you have to have endurance, and you have to be strong in struggles.”

Vancouver Canucks Sign Samuel Blais To PTO

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Forward Sammy Blais will look to play for the third NHL team of his career as the Vancouver Canucks announced he has signed a contract with their AHL affiliate, the Abbotsford Canucks, as well as a professional tryout agreement with Vancouver. The one-time Stanley Cup champion bottom-six forward will have a chance to crack the Canucks’ opening night roster in training camp or land a two-way deal to start the regular season.

The physical forward recently wrapped up his second stint with the St. Louis Blues after being re-acquired from the New York Rangers in a 2023 trade that sent Vladimir Tarasenko to the Big Apple. The Rangers acquired Blais for another Russian forward in the 2021 trade that landed Pavel Buchnevich with the Blues.

Blais cracked the Blues’ roster four years after being drafted by the team in the sixth round of the 2014 NHL Draft and he immediately became a force to be reckoned with in the team’s bottom six. He quickly became one of the more physical players on the team by collecting 366 hits in 119 games during his first run in St. Louis. Aside from scoring 17 goals and 35 points in total, Blais helped the Blues secure their first Stanley Cup championship during the 2019 playoffs by collecting one goal and three points in 15 postseason contests.

He never got much opportunity with the Rangers organization as injuries limited him to only 14 regular season contests. New York re-signed Blais to a one-year, $1.53MM deal for the 2022-23 NHL season but only gave him 9:38 of ice time during the regular season which made him expendable at the trade deadline. Heading back to St. Louis, Blais experienced his best stretch of hockey at the NHL level as he scored nine goals and 20 points in 31 games to end the season.

His play at the end of the 2022-23 campaign earned him a one-year, $1MM extension with the Blues organization but he was unable to score at the same rate. He finished last year with one goal and seven points in 53 games and will now look to force his way into a crowded Canucks forward core.

Penguins, Jets Swap Rutger McGroarty And Brayden Yager

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1:45 PM: The Winnipeg Jets have confirmed the one-for-one swap.

11:00 AM: The Pittsburgh Penguins may have found their solution to who will play on a line with Sidney Crosby. Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman is reporting the organization is close to acquiring forward prospect Rutger McGroarty from the Winnipeg Jets. A few moments later, Friedman additionally reported the Penguins would be sending prospect Brayden Yager back to Winnipeg.

McGroarty immediately becomes the best forward prospect in the Penguins organization with Yager’s exit and has a legitimate opportunity to crack the roster next season. Although nothing was purposefully made public, McGroarty reportedly sought a trade out of Winnipeg in late June for a more readily available opportunity at the NHL level.

Shortly after being acquired by the organization, the Penguins signed McGroarty to his entry-level contract meaning his time at the University of Michigan has concluded. The three-year deal will pay McGroarty a salary of $855K at the NHL level with a signing bonus of $50K and performance ’A’ bonuses up to $500K each year of the deal.

It’s difficult to argue with McGroarty on being NHL-ready as he recently finished ninth in NCAA scoring during the 2023-24 season with 16 goals and 52 points in 36 games. He was also sensational during the 2024 IIHF World Junior Championships for Team USA as he scored five goals and nine points in seven tournament contests while captaining his team to a gold medal finish for the first time since 2021.

If the Penguins graduate McGroarty to the NHL for the 2024-25 campaign, he fills an obvious need on Crosby’s wing. Playing primarily against Big Ten opponents during his time in the NCAA, McGroarty developed an innate skill to read opposing defenses and show off his elite playmaking abilities in the offensive zone. He’s not satisfied without the puck either, as he is a relentless forechecker with a combination of skill and physical play.

His forechecking abilities make him an ideal candidate to put on a line with Crosby or Evgeni Malkin, as both players thrive with the puck on their sticks. McGroarty’s style of play should open up plenty of space for the two Pittsburgh legends but he also has a good enough shot to finish the play himself.

Yager was selected exactly one year after McGroarty with the 14th overall selection of the 2023 NHL Draft. He spent last season with the WHL’s Moose Jaw Warriors collecting 35 goals and 95 points in 57 games as the team’s assistant captain. He further cemented his legacy with the Moose Jaw program with an incredible playoff performance with 11 goals and 27 points in 20 games en route to becoming champions of the WHL.

Yager also had the opportunity to represent Team Canada at the 2024 IIHF World Junior Championships and scored five points in five games for the Canadians but unfortunately failed to medal. It appeared as if Yager may have an outside chance of making Pittsburgh’s roster for the 2024-25 campaign with the team signing him to his entry-level contract only a month ago. Now, Yager will attempt to crack Winnipeg’s roster in training camp.

The young Saskatoon native has inherent value as a right-handed shot center who also brings more defensive awareness to his game in comparison to McGroarty. If the organization is not content with giving Cole Perfetti minutes down the middle of the ice on the team’s second line, Yager provides a confident long-term answer at center behind Mark Scheifele.

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