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West Notes: Lindstein, Podkolzin, Chmelevski

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When the Blues signed prospect Theo Lindstein back in March, they gained assignment rights on him as a first-round pick, meaning they could have assigned him to their AHL affiliate.  However, the blueliner confirmed to Gefle Dagblad’s Daniel Sandstrom that he will remain with SHL Brynas for the 2024-25 season and will not attend training camp with St. Louis next month.  Lindstein was the 29th overall pick in 2023 after playing a regular role for them in the SHL.  Brynas was relegated to the second-tier Allsvenskan last season where he had 15 points in 49 games plus four more in 13 qualification games to get them back up to the top level.  Because Lindstein clearly won’t play in ten or more NHL games this coming season, his contract will slide and still have three years remaining on it heading into 2025-26.

Elsewhere out West:

  • In an interview with Cherkas Atlant (video link), Canucks winger Vasily Podkolzin admitted that he was surprised to receive his two-year, $2MM contract extension in mid-April. The 23-year-old spent the bulk of last season in the minors with AHL Abbotsford and wasn’t overly productive when in Vancouver, collecting just two assists in 19 games.  That had the 2019 first-round pick expecting to be traded at some point but instead, he’ll get a chance to lock down a full-time roster spot in the fall.  Notably, Podkolzin is now waiver-eligible so it seems likely he’ll at least stick at the back of their roster after training camp.
  • Speaking with Sport-Express’ Ivan Bohun, Sharks RFA forward Sasha Chmelevski indicated that he still intends to return to the NHL despite signing a three-year extension with Salavat Yulaev in late April. The 25-year-old has 24 career NHL appearances under his belt where he has 10 assists but he elected to return home where he has been quite productive.  Last season, Chmelevski picked up 27 goals and 29 assists in 67 games, leading to some speculation that San Jose might be able to trade his rights.  Chmelevski thinks a trade could have been an option but clearly, one never materialized.  Once this contract ends in 2027, Chmelevski will be 28 and an unrestricted free agent and it appears that will be when he attempts to return to North America.

Submit Your Questions For The #PHRMailbag

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Things have slowed down considerably after a hectic rush to begin free agency. With the dog days of summer in full swing, it’s time to open up the mailbag once again.

Our last one came in the more immediate aftermath to the draft and free agency and was broken into two pieces. The first looked at whether the Golden Knights could deal from their blue line depth to improve their depth scoring, whether Utah could move on from Barrett Hayton, and a few remaining storylines to keep an eye on this offseason, among other things. The second dealt with the best lineup fit for Steven Stamkos in Nashville, how the Flyers may alter their roster ahead of Matvei Michkov’s arrival, and the Stars’ cup chances.

You can submit a question by using #PHRMailbag on Twitter/X or by leaving a comment down below.  The mailbag will run on the weekend.

Poll: Who Will Be The NHL’s Next Captain?

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August is finally here, marking the time of year when teams reconvene at their home rink and begin hardy planning for the upcoming season. That step will come with extra work for the six teams around the league who don’t currently have a captain.

Many of these teams, including Seattle, Anaheim, and Utah, have gone years without a captain – instead opting to disseminate responsibilities among multiple assistant captains. All three teams are amidst staunch rebuilds – with Utah even mapping out relocation – and are likely waiting for their top prospects to take a few more steps before earning the role. The trio of Matthew Beniers, Leo Carlsson, and Logan Cooley seem prime for that ascension with their respective teams, though they each have multiple challengers lining up behind them. The Buffalo Sabres are in a similar grouping, as they transition from a veteran-laden lineup to one of the league’s youngest rosters.

The Chicago Blackhawks also fall into the aforementioned discussion – not carrying a captain since legendary centerman Jonathan Toews ended his career in 2022. Toews leaves massive shoes as Chicago’s leader, after co-heading three Stanley Cup wins alongside winger Patrick Kane. Naming a successor will formally carry Chicago into a new era – one without many of the faces that came to define Chicago hockey in the 2010s. Teenage phenom Connor Bedard seems like a great option to lead that transition, after netting 22 goals and 61 points in 68 games last season – the most of any rookie Blackhawk since Artemi Panarin in 2016, and Kane before him. But Bedard is still young and was limited to a partial season last year by a jaw injury. Those factors could hold him back from Chicago’s prestigious ’C’. If that is the case, it doesn’t seem any of the team’s veteran leaders, including Nick Foligno and Seth Jones, would inspire Chicago to name a captain too early.

And while Chicago’s next captain will lead the team through new scenery, it’s the Tampa Bay vacancy that headlines the off-season. The Lightning now sit without a captain for the first time since 2002, after franchise icon Steven Stamkos chose to sign with the Nashville Predators in his first trip to unrestricted free agency. Stamkos wore the ’C’ for the last 10 years and established himself as a first-ballot Hall-of-Famer in that span, leading Tampa Bay to two Stanley Cups and setting the franchise’s all-time records in both goals and points scored. Like in Chicago, the Lightning will be entering a new era with their next captain – though they’re much more prepared for the vacancy than their counterparts. While forwards Nikita Kucherov and Brayden Point could both serve as strong replacements, it’s defenseman Victor Hedman that offers the same rugged veteran leadership brought by Stamkos. Hedman recently signed a four-year extension in Tampa, taking him through his age-37 season and, potentially, the end of his career. He’s already appeared in 1,052 games with Tampa Bay – the most of any Lightning other than Stamkos – and holds the franchise records in all three scoring stats, among defenders. Transitioning from Stamkos to Hedman should prove more of a light handoff than a total change in power, which could be enough to sway a Lightning franchise that hasn’t gone longer than one year without a captain since naming Paul Ysebaert as their inaugural ’C’.

Mapping out when captain announcements will come is often a fool’s bet, but the candidates to earn the NHL’s next ’C’ seem to be becoming clearer. Who will it be? Will Tampa jump to another veteran, will Chicago move into their next step, or will an oft-captain-less team commit to their young guard? Let us know by voting in the poll below and discussing in the comments.

Who Will Be The NHL's Next Captain?
Victor Hedman, Tampa Bay 70.38% (625 votes)
Connor Bedard, Chicago 20.95% (186 votes)
Matthew Beniers, Seattle 5.07% (45 votes)
Leo Carlsson, Anaheim 3.60% (32 votes)
Total Votes: 888

If the embedded poll isn’t showing up, use this link to vote!

Snapshots: NCAA Recruitment, Colorado, Lekkerimäki

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The NCAA commitment window opened to the 2008 birth year on August 1st, bringing another wave of top young players to the collegiate level. International recruits have so far headlined this year’s class, with five Europeans and 13 Canadians already announcing their commitments. Among the notable international commits is hefty centerman Caleb Malhotra, who went eighth overall to Kingston in this year’s OHL Draft, but solidified his plans to play outside of the OHL with a commitment to Boston University. Malhotra is emerging as a top Canadian in the 2008 birth year – even despite battles with injury this season. He played in just 48 games, though he still did enough to score at a point-per-game pace and earn a five-star rating from PuckPreps, who praised his mobility and puck skills.

Malhotra – the son of longtime Vancouver Canucks center Manny Malhotra – is a cerebral playmaker, who knows how to use his frame and stickhandling to create space. With a college commitment out of the way, he’s now set for the Chilliwack Chiefs of the BCHL. Malhotra is undeniably one of the BCHL’s top recruits and will now look to vindicate the expectations around him, and quickly bounce back from injury, by finding scoring quickly at the juniors level. If all goes well, he’ll enter BU with the same lofty expectations.

Other notes from around the league:

  • The AHL’s Colorado Eagles have announced they’ve hired Kim Weiss as a video coach and Matt Zaba as a goalie coach. Weiss moves to the pro level after becoming the first female coach in D-III history this season, serving behind the bench of her alma mater Trinity College. Trinity won their conference championship under Weiss’ guard – earning her a ring after losing in the NAHL’s 2023 Robertson Cup semifinals with the Maryland Black Bears. Zaba is also moving from American juniors, having spent the last seven seasons as the goalie coach for the USHL’s Tri-City Storm. He’s built up multiple NHL prospects over that span, including Pittsburgh Penguins prospect Filip Larson, Calgary Flames prospect Arseni Sergeyev, and Vegas Golden Knights prospect Isaiah Saville. He’ll now join that trio at the AHL level – coaching in familiar territory after starting his career at Colorado College. Zaba is also an alum of one NHL game, 66 AHL games, and 31 ECHL games – though much of his personal playing career was spent in Austria and Italy.
  • The Vancouver Canucks are facing a list of lineup questions as training camp approaches, shares Thomas Drance of The Athletic, who highlighted the right-wing role next to Jake DeBrusk and Elias Pettersson as the team’s most glaring hole. Drance mentioned Nils Hoglander as an early favorite for the role, though he’ll face pressure from new signee Daniel Sprong. However, Drance also noted that star prospect Jonathan Lekkerimäki could be a dark horse to round out what should be Vancouver’s scoring line. Lekkerimäki won the SHL’s ’Rookie of the Year’ award last season, after posting 19 goals and 31 points in 46 games with Örebro HK. He signed his entry-level contract and moved to the AHL after Örebro’s early playoff exit – adding two points in six more games with the Abbotsford Canucks. Lekkerimäki is an effective scorer, with an eye for the offensive zone and hard snapshot – though his size has some worried about how he’ll adjust to the next step. It seems he’ll have a chance to answer that bell at training camp, as he fights for a significant role out of the gates.

International Notes: Beaudin, Schmiemann, Zahejsky

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Some notable minor transactions from around the hockey world today as August moves along:

  • Former Senators center J.C. Beaudin will remain overseas this season after signing a one-year deal with Finland’s TPS, per a team announcement. Beaudin, 27, was a third-round pick of the Avalanche back in 2015 but didn’t make his NHL debut until 2019-20 with Ottawa, posting an assist and a -4 rating in 22 games. He spent the following two seasons in the AHL with Belleville and Laval before heading overseas in 2022. He signed with Grizzlys Wolfsburg of the German DEL, where he racked up 22 goals and 48 points in 90 games over the last two seasons.
  • Defenseman Quinn Schmiemann is making his first jump across the pond, as Slovakia’s HC Dukla Trencin announced on Facebook that they’ve signed the 23-year-old to a one-year contract. Schmiemann was a sixth-round pick of the Lightning in 2019 out of WHL Kamloops but never signed, instead beginning his professional career in the Canucks organization on an AHL deal with Abbotsford in 2022. Schmiemann rarely got into the lineup in Abbotsford and was sent back to the Lightning organization at last season’s AHL trade deadline, finishing the season with the Syracuse Crunch. The 6’2″, 201-lb left-shot defender had four goals and 10 assists for 14 points and a +10 rating in 67 AHL games the last two years and will now head to Europe after failing to land an NHL contract.
  • A potential first-round pick in next year’s draft is coming to North America. Czech forward Vit Zahejsky has signed a scholarship and development agreement with WHL Kamloops after they selected him second overall in last month’s CHL Import Draft, the team announced today. Zahejsky is one of the younger players in the 2025 class and doesn’t turn 17 until this weekend. The 5’10”, 170-lb forward spent last season in his native Czechia with HC Karlovy Vary’s U20 club, managing 19 goals and 39 points in 42 games against much older competition. He’s currently representing Czechia at this year’s Hlinka Gretzky Cup, where he has a goal and an assist in two games.

Snapshots: Cotter, World Juniors, Murashov

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The Devils were looking for some more size and speed in their bottom six when they gave up former top-10 pick Alexander Holtz in a trade with the Golden Knights to acquire Paul Cotter, general manager Tom Fitzgerald told James Nichols of New Jersey Hockey Now.

“For us today and what we wanted to accomplish, adding a guy like Paul Cotter, who we believe has upside and has a little bit of Miles Wood in him. He can skate and is physical,” Fitzgerald said. It’s easy to see the comparable drawn between the current and former Devil – both have 6’2″ frames and above-average straight-line speed. Cotter checks in nearly 20 lbs heavier than Wood, who left New Jersey in free agency in 2023 to sign a long-term contract with the Avalanche.

The 24-year-old played 138 NHL games over the last three seasons with Vegas before the trade, scoring 22 goals and 23 assists for 45 points while averaging 12:44 per game. He finished second on the Knights with 233 hits last year, which would have led the Devils by a long shot – Curtis Lazar was their leader with 179.

More from around the hockey world today:

  • Before NHLers return to the international stage at the 2025 4 Nations Face-Off in February, the world’s top U-20 talents will convene again for the World Juniors in December and January. This season’s edition is in Ottawa, and well in advance of the event, The Athletic’s Scott Wheeler, Corey Pronman and Max Bultman took a crack at projecting what rosters may look like for the four traditional powerhouses.
  • After signing his entry-level contract last week, Penguins goalie prospect Sergei Murashov is ready for the jump to North America, he tells Daria Tuboltseva of Responsible Gambling. The 20-year-old is hoping for a chance at NHL action this season, but he’s “ready to spend an entire season in the AHL.” “We’ll see how it goes,” Murashov continued. “It’s a new challenge for me. The Penguins’ coaches have told me about the specific aspects of playing in the AHL.” A 2022 fourth-round pick, Murashov has been one of the best goalies in the Russian junior circuit the past three seasons and had a .930 SV% and 24-4-2 record in 30 appearances with Loko Yaroslavl last season. In a six-game Kontinental Hockey League call-up to Lokomotiv, he continued his strong play with a .925 SV%, 1.84 GAA and his first professional shutout.

William Bitten Signs With Spartak Moscow

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Free agent forward William Bitten has signed a one-year contract with Spartak Moscow of Russia’s Kontinental Hockey League, the team announced in a press release. He played last season with the AHL’s Springfield Thunderbirds in the back half of a two-year, two-way deal with the Blues before becoming a Group VI UFA in July.

The 26-year-old only got one NHL opportunity before heading overseas – a four-game call-up with St. Louis in 2022-23. The Ottawa native logged one assist and 10 hits with a +1 rating, but failed to record a shot attempt while averaging 6:39 per game.

A third-round pick of the Canadiens in 2016, Bitten never suited up for Montreal or their AHL affiliate in Laval. He did sign his entry-level contract with them shortly before his draft rights were set to expire in 2018 after completing a four-year stint in the Ontario Hockey League, but he was traded to the Wild for Gustav Olofsson before the 2018-19 campaign began. In the Minnesota system, Bitten struggled to build on his strong offensive production in juniors, limited to 77 points in 168 games with AHL Iowa before he was traded again to the Blues in 2021.

His offensive acumen seemed to improve somewhat after the move to the Blues’ affiliate in Springfield, posting 103 points in 178 games over the past three seasons. But the speedy 5’11” forward was still never able to put himself in consideration for full-time NHL duties and has already passed through waivers unclaimed multiple times. The 2018 OHL champion now heads to Moscow, where he joins a Spartak offense headlined by former Canucks and Sharks winger Nikolay Goldobin, 2012 Stanley Cup champion Andrei Loktionov and Golden Knights prospect Ivan Morozov.

Latest On Sidney Crosby Contract Negotiations

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Most teams don’t have franchise-defining moments in the first week of August, but as Jason Mackey of Pittsburgh Post-Gazette writes, that could happen to the Pittsburgh Penguins tomorrow.  August 7th is Sidney Crosby’s 37th birthday and Mackey wonders if it might be the day that Crosby signs his long-awaited contract extension with the Pittsburgh Penguins. Crosby has been notoriously superstitious throughout his career when it comes to the number 87, carrying an $8.7MM cap hit since the 2008-09 season and wearing number 87 for his entire career. Many in Pittsburgh believe he will sign a new deal tomorrow on 8/7, but it’s fair to wonder what will happen to the team if he doesn’t.

Rob Rossi of The Athletic wrote last week that both sides left negotiations in July feeling comfortable enough that a deal was close and cited sources on both sides of the talks. By all accounts, a deal seems to be close, but as the summer drags on, Penguins fans are becoming more uncomfortable with the extended timeline, and as Mackey points out, tomorrow passing without a contract announcement will surely put fans into panic mode.

Dan Kingerski of Pittsburgh Hockey Now writes that there are no updates from his sources on negotiations, but also takes a balanced approach to breaking down the situation. Noting Crosby’s desire to wear one jersey for his entire career as his mentor Mario Lemieux once did for these very same Penguins. Crosby’s childhood hero Steve Yzerman also only wore one NHL jersey, and Crosby has always stated publicly that it means a lot to him to do the same.

Mark Madden of 105.9 The X and TribLive believes Crosby will sign, but he asked the question this week that many Penguins fans are scared to answer. What if Crosby doesn’t sign an extension tomorrow? It would be a scary reality for Penguins fans to face, the Penguins have pivoted to a retool and don’t have much in the pipeline to look forward to. If Crosby was to leave Pittsburgh, it would mean they are locked into many overpriced long-term deals, with a poor farm system and not much hope at the NHL level.

However, that moment isn’t yet a reality, and given Crosby’s superstitious nature and desire to remain in Pittsburgh, it is a reality they may not have to face until he retires.

Evening Notes: Swayman, Kuznetsov, Penguins

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Former Boston Bruins goaltender and current NESN analyst Andrew Raycroft joined The Skate Pod to discuss the contract situation of Bruins netminder Jeremy Swayman. Raycroft told the panel that Bruins fans shouldn’t be concerned at this juncture, and he wouldn’t be concerned about the contract negotiations until September.

Boston has been busy this summer dealing goaltender Linus Ullmark to the Ottawa Senators and signing unrestricted free agents Nikita Zadorov and Elias Lindholm to long-term deals. Despite the lucrative deals they’ve dished out, the Bruins remain in a good position to re-sign Swayman as they sit $8.6MM under the salary cap limit (as per PuckPedia) and could easily fit an $8MM cap hit in for their newly appointed starting goaltender.

In other evening notes:

  • Former Washington Capitals and Carolina Hurricanes center Evgeny Kuznetsov told MatchTV that he struggled so badly during this past season that he didn’t want his family to watch him play. The 32-year-old was once a perennial point-per-game player but fell to just eight goals and 16 assists in 63 games this past season and wasn’t nearly as effective as he once was. Kuznetsov and the Hurricanes terminated the final year of his NHL contract in mid-July so that he could return to Russia where he signed a four-year deal with SKA of the KHL.
  • Steven Ellis of Daily Faceoff covered the Pittsburgh Penguins in his NHL Prospect Pool Breakdown and believes that Brayden Yager is far and away the Penguins’ best prospect and likely the only prospect they have who could play in their top six eventually. The Penguins have had a difficult time developing scoring forwards over the past decade and it has been a drain on the likes of Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin who have had to carry the offensive load for much of the past ten years. Ellis notes that Yager is still a few years away from developing into a top-six forward which makes it entirely possible that the 19-year-old center will never play with the veteran stars.

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