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Central Notes: Faber, Wood, Hemming, Buchinger

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The Wild’s franchise-record extension for rising sophomore defenseman Brock Faber turned some heads yesterday, but general manager Bill Guerin believes the deal is “worth the risk,” he told Joe Smith of The Athletic (subscriber link).

Smith adds that Guerin has acknowledged the league-wide trend of banking on potential core pieces early in their careers, getting the cost certainty that comes with rich, long-term deals compared to bridging players through their prime and then overpaying for their twilight seasons.

“This is a different game now, a different generation, a different way of doing business,” Guerin said. “It’s really important you have to do a lot of work to make sure who you’re identifying as your foundation guys… I’d much rather have a guy Brock’s age on an eight-year deal than a 31-year-old guy. It makes sense. [Faber’s] shown he’s mature enough to handle it.”

More out of the Central Division:

  • As the Predators’ No. 1 forward prospect, winger Matthew Wood is looking to be more efficient at filling out his 6’4″ frame, he tells Robby Stanley of NHL.com. “I feel a lot stronger on my feet. I think I’m starting to use my body a bit better and starting to learn about that. Strength is definitely something I’m working on, and that’s going to take my game to the next level,” Wood said. The 19-year-old is transferring from UConn, where he had 27 goals and 62 points in 70 games over the first two seasons of his collegiate career, to Minnesota for his junior season in 2024-25.
  • The new-look Stars have been built on the back of expert player development, a pattern they’re hoping to repeat with 2024 first-round pick Emil Hemming. Dallas already has the Finnish winger signed to his entry-level contract, and he’ll be closer to the Stars this season by moving from his home country to the Barrie Colts of the Ontario Hockey League. It’s part of an attempt to strike gold yet again and work more directly with the 6’1″, 205-lb forward on developing his all-around game, writes Sean Shapiro of EP Rinkside on his personal blog (subscriber link).
  • In an interview with Matthew DeFranks of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch (subscriber link), Blues defense prospect Michael Buchinger says he’s ready to make the jump to the pros this fall after wrapping up his junior career with the Ontario Hockey League’s Guelph Storm. “I just think making the first decision, not trying to overthink, not trying to make a fancy pass,” Buchinger said. “Obviously at the pro level, everyone’s in that right position. Just understanding the systems and where guys are going to be and making a really quick, smart decision. I think the rest will take care of itself.” The No. 88 pick in 2022 will have his entry-level contract go into effect this year, and he’s expected to start the campaign on assignment to AHL Springfield, where DeFranks notes he should have ample power-play opportunity thanks to roster turnover.

Devils Re-Sign Nico Daws To Two-Year Deal

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The Devils have re-signed RFA goaltender Nico Daws to a two-year deal, according to a press release from the team. It’s a two-way pact in 2024-25 ($775K NHL/$350K AHL) before upgrading to a one-way structure in 2025-26, paying him $850K. That works out to an average annual value and a cap hit of $812.5K. Daws also has a salary guarantee of $465K this season, the team said.

Daws, 23, was selected with the 84th overall pick out of the Ontario Hockey League’s Guelph Storm in 2020. He signed his entry-level contract with the Devils one year later after playing one season of pro hockey with Germany’s ERC Ingolstadt. He was immediately thrust into action, making 23 starts and two relief appearances in the 2021-22 campaign. The Germany-born Canadian was one of seven netminders the struggling Devils used that season. He was arguably the best of all of them, leading them with 10 wins and posting a .893 SV%, the highest among NJ goalies with at least 15 GP that season.

After the Devils acquired Vitek Vanecek from the Capitals ahead of 2022-23, Daws could more comfortably return to a development role in the AHL. He responded with an All-Star season for the Utica Comets, posting a .904 SV% and 2.70 GAA in 33 contests with two shutouts and a 16-14-3 record. He added a .920 SV% in six playoff games before undergoing offseason hip surgery that delayed his debut last season until December.

Upon returning to health, Daws was again called upon to aid a New Jersey crease struggling with injuries and poor play from its veterans and other youngsters. He remained a passable NHL option, posting a .894 SV%, 3.15 GAA and -5.1 GSAA in 21 performances and a 9-11-0 record.

With other early-20s competitor Akira Schmid out of the picture after being traded to the Golden Knights a few weeks ago, Daws enters 2024-25 as the Devils’ undisputed No. 3 netminder. He remains waiver-exempt and will likely start the season in Utica with veterans Jake Allen and Jacob Markstrom manning the NHL crease. Daws has 14 games remaining until he loses that waiver exemption and will require them beginning in 2025-26, regardless of what NHL action he sees this season, per CapWages’ waivers calculator.

Canadiens Re-Sign Arber Xhekaj To Two-Year Deal

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RFA defenseman Arber Xhekaj has agreed to terms on a two-year deal with the Canadiens, the team announced in a press release. The deal is worth $2.6MM and will pay him an average of $1.3MM per season.

Xhekaj, whose younger brother Florian Xhekaj is also in the Habs’ system, has spent the last two seasons in Montreal. He’s posted 23 points (eight goals, 15 assists) and a -3 rating while averaging 15:34 per game in 95 contests.

Undrafted, Xhekaj burst onto the scene directly out of junior hockey just one season after inking his entry-level contract with the Canadiens. After losing his 2020-21 season due to COVID-19, Xhekaj signed with Montreal in October 2021 and returned to the Ontario Hockey League for his final season of juniors, which the hard-hitting defender split between the Kitchener Rangers and Hamilton Bulldogs.

According to Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet, Xhekaj was drawing trade interest throughout last season, with the Flyers named specifically as a suitor. No move materialized, though, and Montreal projects to enter next season with the same group of promising young defenders. Their only noticeable departure on the blue line this summer was stay-at-home depth piece Johnathan Kovacevic, who they traded to the Devils for a 2026 fourth-round pick after last month’s draft.

The deal comes in around expected for the 23-year-old, who didn’t have enough professional experience accumulated to file for salary arbitration this summer. While the Ontario native is certainly becoming a fan favorite in Montreal, he’s been given only sparse opportunities on special teams and has logged decisively bottom-pairing minutes at even strength. The left-shot defender can also play comfortably on the right side, potentially giving him the edge in a battle for a spot in the opening night lineup with other developing prospects like Justin Barron, Lane Hutson and Jayden Struble.

After the signing is registered, the Habs will be left with just over $6.6MM in projected cap space with a roster size of 22, per PuckPedia. The last remaining roster spot could go to Barron, who’s still an RFA in need of a deal for next season.

Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.

How Long Is The Vancouver Canucks’ Competitive Window?

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In an article today from Harman Dayal of The Athletic (Subscription Required), he analyzes the Vancouver Canucks competitive window with their current salary cap structure. The Canucks experienced a 26-point jump in the standings last season while winning the Pacific Division for the first time since the division was created ahead of the 2013-14 NHL season. Additionally, Vancouver qualified for the Stanley Cup playoffs for the third time in 11 seasons before being ousted in Round Two by the eventual Western Conference Champions, the Edmonton Oilers.

The Canucks have high-priced players at the top of their salary cap table with $11.6MM and $8MM contracts for forwards Elias Pettersson and J.T. Miller, respectively. The organization has just over $15K available in salary cap space according to PuckPedia but has done a nice job in parsing out the rest of their roster. Vancouver arguably has two of the better bargain contracts in the league with defenseman Quinn Hughes ($7.85MM until 2026-27) and goaltender Thatcher Demko ($5MM until 2025-26).

Dayal argues that the Canucks are similar to the Tampa Bay Lightning in the late 2010s and the early 2020s as they captured two Stanley Cup Championships while paying Andrei Vasilevskiy, Mikhail Sergachev, Anthony Cirelli, Brayden Point, and Blake Coleman well-below market value. Because of this, Tampa Bay was able to fill out the rest of the roster and create one of the better dynasties in the league since the Chicago Blackhawks and Los Angeles Kings.

The argument seems a little off-base as the Canucks core is a little bit further ahead in their contractual lives than the comparables from the Lightning. Tampa Bay does have the benefit of being in a no-tax state which keeps contracts lower on average but the players listed were not as far into their careers at that point. Once the chickens came home to roost, the Lightning have been bounced from Round One in back-to-back years and the organization has had to make tough decisions to stay salary cap compliant.

This is why Vancouver’s contention window largely comes down to the contracts of Hughes, Demko, and Brock Boeser. The latter becomes an unrestricted free agent at the end of next season and could earn nearly $9MM if he comes close to repeating his 40-goal campaign from the 2023-24 season. Boeser’s shooting percentage (19.6%) throughout last year was more than seven points higher than his career average which points to regression next season. If Boeser comes back down to earth near the 20-30 goal range, his asking price should come down substantially.

Hughes and Demko will be much tougher to absorb for Vancouver especially if the former continues to play at a Norris Trophy-level pace. This year’s award winner finished with 92 points in 82 games and could be in line for a contract near the $12MM average on his next deal. Regardless of the salary cap projections over the next three years, this would be a pricey contract for any team let alone the Canucks.

Demko may provide an easier contract situation to resolve as his injury history continues to mount. He did play in 51 games for the Canucks this past season while maintaining a .918 save percentage but was absent from the team for much of this year’s playoff run. If Demko can stay healthy, this may cause a financial hurdle for Vancouver if he continues to post one of the better save percentages in the league compared to his peers.

All in all, Vancouver’s contention window is at least over the next two years with Demko and Hughes signed to team-friendly contracts. If general manager Patrik Allvin can continue to be crafty on the trade market like he was last season, the Canucks should be well poised to make a run soon. However, much like Tampa Bay’s recent history, Vancouver could be positioned to make some difficult decisions regarding their roster in only a few short years.

International/Minor Transactions: Thoresen, Voynov, Kawaguchi, Skirving

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Veteran forward Patrick Thoresen will play during his age-41 season as he’s signed a contract to play for Djurgårdens IF of HockeyAllsvenskan according to his previous team, Storhamar in Norway. The international veteran started his professional career in the 2003-04 season with Mörrums GoIS of HockeyAllsvenskan after a brief two-year stint in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League.

Although he’s mostly known for his international efforts, Thoresen spent two years in the NHL from 2006-08 with the Edmonton Oilers and Philadelphia Flyers where he collected six goals and 24 points in 106 games as the first undrafted Norwegian to crack an NHL roster. Unfortunately, his NHL career did not pan out as expected and Thoresen returned to Europe with HC Lugano in Switzerland.

Thoresen has also regularly represented Team Norway in the Olympic Games and the World Championships where he’s collected nine points in 13 games in the former, and 55 points in 66 games in the latter. During the World Championships in 2012, Thoresen scored seven goals and 18 points in only eight games which ended up being one point less than tournament scoring leader Evgeni Malkin.

Other international/minor transactions:

  • Torpedo Nizhny Novgorod of the KHL announced they have signed former NHL defenseman Slava Voynov to a contract for the 2024-25 season. Voynov was a member of the Los Angeles Kings in the NHL where he helped the team win Stanley Cups in 2012 and 2014 while collecting 18 goals and 81 points in 190 career games. Infamously, Voynov pleaded no contest to a reduced misdemeanor charge in a domestic violence case brought forward by his wife Marta Varlamova on December 1st, 2014. The Kings terminated Voynov’s contract on September 17th, 2015 and he has continued his career in Russia ever since.
  • Former captain at the University of North Dakota, Jordan Kawaguchi, is trying his luck in the Elite Ice Hockey League as the Belfast Giants announced they have signed the young forward for the 2024-25 season. Kawaguchi managed a productive career in North Dakota before signing his entry-level contract with the Dallas Stars in 2021. Unfortunately, Kawaguchi failed to make much noise in the AHL with the Texas Stars and was demoted to playing with the Idaho Steelheads of the ECHL. He was much more productive in Idaho but he briefly retired after the 2022-23 ECHL season due to injuries such as concussions, a torn MCL, and a broken thumb. Kawaguchi still returned to hockey last year and scored eight goals and 31 points in 23 games for the Steelheads.
  • Longtime ECHL veteran Todd Skirving is sticking in the league as he has signed a one-year contract with the Reading Royals as announced by the team. It will be Skirving’s seventh straight season in the ECHL and his first in Reading. Split between the Orlando Solar Bears, Utah Grizzlies, Atlanta Gladiators, Newfoundland Growlers, and the Florida Everblades, Skirving has scored 74 goals and 149 points in 301 ECHL games while winning a Kelly Cup in 2019 with the Growlers, and last year with the Everblades.

Hurricanes Attempted To Trade Necas Prior To Extension

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One of the biggest names on the trade market this offseason was taken off the board earlier today as the Carolina Hurricanes signed Martin Necas to a two-year, $13MM extension. However, the Hurricanes were also close to moving on from Necas earlier in the summer according to Frank Seravalli in Daily Faceoff’s podcast, the DFO Rundown (approximately 31-minute mark).

Seravalli asserts that Carolina had agreed to a Necas trade with the Buffalo Sabres. However, Seravalli did admit in the podcast that it may not have been the Sabres but he was fairly certain. The trade broke down relatively quickly as Necas purportedly would not agree to sign a new contract in Buffalo. Furthermore from Seravalli, the Hurricanes also had substantial trade talks with the Winnipeg Jets about Necas. He states the Jets had offered prospect Rutger McGroarty, forward Cole Perfetti, and an unspecified draft pick for Necas.

It is unknown when these trade conversations happened as Carolina may have taken Necas off the market entirely after losing Jake Guentzel to the Tampa Bay Lightning. The Hurricanes expect to compete for a Stanley Cup next spring, and their competitive aspirations would have been greatly diminished by losing two top-six forwards in one summer.

All points made by Seravalli point to the idea that Necas had a lot of control over the negotiations and effectively blocked his inclusion in either trade due to his unwillingness not to sign an extension with either organization. Necas has committed himself to Carolina for two more seasons and will become an unrestricted free agent at the end of the contract.

Factoring in Buffalo’s other moves from the summer, adding Necas into the team’s top six would have allowed them to move Jason Zucker down to the third line. Even still, with Zach Benson prepping for a bigger season in 2024-25, and Jiri Kulich on the cusp of cracking the roster; Necas may have dramatically saturated Buffalo’s forward core. However, unlike Benson and Kulich, Necas is an established player at the NHL level.

Without knowing the return to Carolina in the rumored swap with Buffalo, he is coming off a season in which he scored 24 goals and 53 points in 77 games and is only two years removed from scoring 71 points over a full season. He would have helped the Sabres return to their 2022-23 team goal production after seeing a nearly 50-goal decrease this past year, but Buffalo may have been better served by letting the rest of their prospect develop over the next two or three seasons.

The reported deal from the Jets organization appears on paper as a massive overpay, as Perfetti has arguably already shown he can be a top-six threat in limited playing time. The former 10th overall pick of the 2020 NHL Draft averaged 13:35 minutes last year and still managed to score 19 goals and 38 points in 71 games. Including McGroarty in the deal (who is coming off a 52-point campaign at the University of Michigan) would have given Carolina two two-six talents in exchange for one.

Nevertheless, Necas was never dealt with this summer and will remain with the Hurricanes organization for the foreseeable future. He will look to rebound off a depressed campaign last season and look to build upon his production in 2022-23 before entering the free agent market when he is 27 years old.

Wild Sign Brock Faber To Eight-Year Extension

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2:17 p.m.: Faber’s contract structure is as follows, per PuckPedia. It’s paid out entirely in base salary with no signing bonuses.

2025-26: $10MM
2026-27: $9.5MM
2027-28: $8.5MM
2028-29: $8.5MM
2029-30: $8.5MM
2030-31: $8.5MM
2031-32: $7.5MM
2032-33: $7MM

12:35 p.m.: Wild defenseman Brock Faber is getting paid after a strong rookie season. The blue liner has inked an eight-year, $68MM extension with an $8.5MM cap hit that will keep him in Minnesota through 2032-33, the team announced Monday.

The deal carries trade protection beginning in 2030-31, featuring a no-movement clause and a modified no-trade clause (15-team no-trade list), reports Michael Russo of The Athletic. That’s the soonest Faber is eligible to receive NMCs or NTCs thanks to his August birthday.

Faber, 22 in August, became eligible to sign an extension on July 1. He’s entering the third and final season of his entry-level contract and would have become an RFA next summer.

Barring any unforeseen additions, the deal will make Faber Minnesota’s highest-paid defenseman beginning in 2025-26. The stout defender, who finished second in Calder Trophy voting last season only to star Blackhawks center Connor Bedard, will surpass franchise pillars Jared Spurgeon ($7.5MM cap hit through 2027) and Jonas Brodin ($6MM cap hit through 2028) for the title. He’ll be the second-highest-paid player on the team behind former Calder winner Kirill Kaprizov, who has two seasons left at a $9MM cap hit. It’s the largest extension and the highest cap hit for a defenseman in franchise history, Russo adds.

The hometown kid entered last season with just two NHL games under his belt, both coming at the tail end of 2022-23 after losing in the NCAA national tournament with Minnesota and subsequently signing his ELC. He was forced into number-one duties for the Wild much of last season with injuries to Brodin and Spurgeon, averaging 24:58 a night while playing in all 82 games. It was the highest ATOI by a rookie since the league began tracking the stat in 1997-98 (min. 25 GP).

That meant Faber was tasked with being a first-unit option at even strength and on both special teams. Offensively, he fit the bill, leading Wild defenders and finishing fifth on the team in scoring with 47 points (8 G, 39 A). His 150 blocks also finished second on the club behind Jacob Middleton. While he fell just short of the Calder, he earned First All-Rookie Team honors for his contributions as the Wild fell short of the playoffs.

The deal buys out all five of Faber’s remaining RFA years and three UFA years. It takes him through his age-30 season, meaning he could still be in line to land a decently rich mid-term deal on the open market in 2033.

The deal took about a month to negotiate. Russo reported back on June 28 that negotiations between Faber and the Wild had begun. It comes in a good bit higher than the seven-year, $7MM AAV deal that Evolving-Hockey projected Faber to sign if he extended this month. It’s quite comparable to the extension that Sabres defender Owen Power signed last summer, which came in at seven years and $58.45MM ($8.35MM AAV). That deal was worth 9.5% of the salary cap at its start, while Faber’s is worth 9.6%.

Faber is the second player entering the final season of his entry-level contract to sign a max-term extension this summer, joining Canadiens 2022 first-overall pick Juraj Slafkovsky. There are plenty of notables who could still sign, including the Stars’ Wyatt Johnston, the Habs’ Kaiden Guhle, and the Devils’ Luke Hughes, whose negotiations will be impacted directly by Faber’s terms. Hughes posted identical point totals to Faber last season and finished one spot behind him in Calder Trophy voting, although he averaged more than three fewer minutes per game.

Even with Spurgeon expected to return to full health in 2024-25, Faber is still likely to begin the season in first-pairing, first power play and first penalty kill minutes, Daily Faceoff projects.

Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.

Hurricanes Re-Sign Martin Necas To Two-Year Deal

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The Hurricanes have come to terms with RFA forward Martin Necas, the team announced. It’s a two-year, $13MM pact with a $6.5MM cap hit, reports Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman.

The deal will pay him $3MM in base salary and a $3MM signing bonus this season, per PuckPedia. In 2025-26, he’ll earn a $6MM base salary and a $1MM signing bonus. The contract walks the 25-year-old to unrestricted free agency without buying out any UFA years.

Carolina issued Necas a $3.5MM qualifying offer in June, confirming he’d be a restricted free agent this summer upon completion of a two-year, $6MM deal he signed in August 2022. Necas was eligible for salary arbitration and opted to file, and his hearing was set for Aug. 4. That won’t be necessary now, as the two sides avoid a hearing with today’s settlement. The news leaves the Rangers’ Ryan Lindgren (Aug. 2) as the only remaining RFA with upcoming arbitration hearings.

[RELATED: 2024 Salary Arbitration Tracker]

Necas was one of this offseason’s top trade targets, and that doesn’t necessarily change with a new contract in hand. But Carolina losing Jake Guentzel, Evgeny Kuznetsov, Stefan Noesen and Teuvo Teravainen to free agency this summer has stretched their forward depth uncomfortably thin, making a Necas trade a harder proposition to stomach. Some teams were reportedly considering preparing an offer sheet for Necas, Pierre LeBrun at TSN reported last month, but that option went away when he filed for arbitration.

The Czech forward appeared in 77 games last season, posting 24 goals, 29 assists, 53 points and a -9 rating while averaging 17:21 per night. It marked an overall regression after a career-best 2022-23 campaign that saw Necas post 28 goals and 71 points in 82 games while seeing some added usage at center. He spent nearly all of last season on the wing and only took 138 faceoffs, an average of 1.79 per game.

Carolina selected Necas with the 12th overall pick in the 2017 draft, and he’s largely fit the bill as a top-six winger since becoming a full-time NHLer in 2019-20. He’s put up 243 points in 362 career games (0.67 PPG), shooting 11.6% and averaging north of 16 minutes per game in every post-pandemic campaign. He gave the Canes 124 points in 159 games (0.78 PPG) over his previous two-year pact, earning himself more than double his previous AAV on this deal.

After signing Necas, the Hurricanes have $6.44MM in projected cap space with a roster size of 22, per PuckPedia. That figure assumes Jesper Fast, who missed all of the 2024 playoffs with a neck injury, starts the season on injured reserve. That last roster spot will go to Seth Jarvis, who remains an RFA in need of a new contract. It’s likely that nearly all of their remaining cap space will go toward that deal, which is likely to be a bridge contract for that AAV. Evolving-Hockey projected a long-term deal for Jarvis to come in around $8.5MM per season, which isn’t affordable after their other moves.

With their offensive depth slashed, Necas is primed for more minutes in 2024-25, should he remain with Carolina. The Canes are hoping he can return to his 70-point form to coincide with more usage, but a career-best year would be great altogether for the team’s on-ice success and Necas’ trade value if they’re still looking to move him.

Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.

Central Notes: Blackhawks, Jets, Hinote

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The Blackhawks were one of the league’s more active teams in free agency at the beginning of this month, adding a decent slate of veteran talent to avoid overworking their prospects as they slowly begin to exit their rebuild stage. Expect two of those additions to flank Connor Bedard on the Hawks’ first line come opening night, writes The Athletic’s Mark Lazerus. Lazerus projects Tyler Bertuzzi and Teuvo Teravainen to serve as Bedard’s wingers to begin 2024-25 after they each inked multi-year deals to come to Chicago.

Taylor Hall, who was acquired last summer to fill the “Bedard mentor” role but played only 10 games, will likely get second-line reps as he makes his return from knee surgery, Lazerus posits. One youngster noticeably absent from Lazerus’ lineup projection is 2022 13th overall pick Frank Nazar, who could fall victim to a numbers game and start this season on assignment to AHL Rockford. Unlike Lukas Reichel, Chicago’s 2020 first-round selection, Nazar doesn’t require waivers. The Hawks may prefer Reichel to start the season in the minors after struggling with just 16 points (5 G, 11 A) in 65 games in 2023-24, but doing so would risk exposing him to the league’s other 31 teams on the wire. Thus, Nazar will likely be headed to the AHL with roster spots needed for other veteran additions such as Pat Maroon, Ilya Mikheyev and Craig Smith.

Another player who could start the campaign in Rockford, this time for pure development reasons, is defenseman Kevin Korchinski. Chicago’s lack of depth on defense last season likely forced Korchinski into more NHL minutes than the team would have liked. With T.J. Brodie and Alec Martinez signed in free agency to provide depth and older prospects like Wyatt Kaiser and Isaak Phillips on the cusp of NHL minutes, the organization “wouldn’t mind another year’s worth of patience for any of his young defensemen, Korchinski (and Kaiser) included,” says Lazerus.

There’s more from the Central:

  • After getting bounced by the Avalanche in the first round last year, the Jets enter 2024-25 with a new-look coaching staff. Scott Arniel has stepped into the big-boss chair to replace the retired Rick Bowness, while Dean Chynoweth and Davis Payne were brought in as external hires to fill a pair of assistant vacancies. To that end, Arniel is hosting a “summer coaching summit” to acclimate his new staff, report Mike McIntyre and Ken Wiebe of The Winnipeg Free Press. One focus under Arniel will be implementing more advanced stats into the Jets’ coaching strategy. “So, what we’re trying to do is funnel [statistics] to our coaching staff, so we can determine, ‘OK, what is it that we want? What do you guys want, what do you guys (in the analytics department) have?,” he told McIntyre and Wiebe.
  • On Nashville Scene’s “It’s All Your Fault” podcast Monday, Dan Hinote spoke about why he parted ways with the Predators this offseason, leaving his assistant coach role there to take an AHL role in the Avalanche organization as the associate head coach of the Colorado Eagles. The 47-year-old, who played 353 games for the Avs between 1999 and 2006, said he prefers working in more of a development-oriented environment, something Nashville is shifting away from after adding a trio of high-profile veteran UFAs. “The thing about what I realize is that the part of the game that I love coaching the most is the development side,” Hinote said. “I had 10 years to not perfect it, but work on it. I’ve gotten there. I feel like I have a good recipe, I’ve had good results for a lot of guys that were kind of up and down and have now kind of solidified themselves as NHL’ers through this process, so I know it works. That’s kind of what it came to” (hat tip to Colorado Hockey Now’s Evan Rawal).

Blackhawks Re-Sign Louis Crevier, Isaak Phillips To Two-Way Deals

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The Blackhawks have re-signed RFA defensemen Louis Crevier and Isaak Phillips to two-way deals for this season, per a team announcement. They’ll carry $775K cap hits if on the NHL roster.

Crevier, 23, was selected in the seventh round out of QMJHL Chicoutimi in 2020. He turned pro and signed his entry-level contract with Chicago in 2022, joining their AHL affiliate in Rockford. The hulking 6’8″, 227-lb stay-at-home defender made his NHL debut last season after spending all of 2022-23 in the minors, playing 24 games largely as an injury replacement. The Quebec City native notched his first three NHL assists, understandably struggling to maintain possession in defensively-oriented minutes on one of the league’s worst teams. His -16 rating, 37.7 CF% and 33.2 xGF% were in the league-wide basement last season, but understandable for a developing blue-liner making his NHL debut ahead of schedule.

It’s worth noting that after being a relative non-factor in Rockford in 2022-23, Crevier did take a demonstrable step forward in AHL action last season. He played increased minutes and showcased increased efficiency on both sides of the puck, logging 11 points (3 G, 8 A) and a +12 rating in 41 games. His above-average skating for his size clicked, a promising sign. That’s likely his ticket to a full-time NHL role somewhere down the line.

That full-time role likely won’t come next season after the Blackhawks bolstered their defensive depth earlier this month with a pair of veteran signings in T.J. Brodie and Alec Martinez. He’ll likely receive some outside consideration for the seventh D-man spot on the opening night roster, but he’ll face competition from a few other young blue-liners in the Chicago system, including Phillips.

Phillips, who was selected two rounds ahead of Crevier in 2020, entered RFA status this summer with more NHL experience than his counterpart. Also coming off the completion of his entry-level contract, he appeared in 33 games for the Hawks last season, posting six assists and a -26 rating while clocking in at over 17 minutes per night. The left-shot defender has 53 NHL games under his belt spread over the last three seasons, totaling a goal and 10 assists with a -37 rating.

He’s not as massive as Crevier, but he still has good size at 6’3″ and 205 lbs. He’s been a stronger all-around player in the minors, where he has 71 points (22 G, 49 A) in 171 games with Rockford over the past four seasons. He got an early start to his professional career after suiting up for Rockford in 2020-21, thanks to the OHL pausing operations due to COVID-19.

Crevier and Phillips were the Hawks’ last remaining unsigned RFAs this summer. Neither were eligible to file for salary arbitration last month, and Crevier was ineligible to sign or receive offer sheets as a 10.2(c) free agent. Both will be RFAs again in 2025.

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