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Players Who Could Start The Season On LTIR

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While only a handful of teams project to need cap relief via long-term injured reserve to open the season, multiple candidates across the league might technically qualify for a placement. Doing so would bar the player from returning until Oct. 31 at the earliest – 24 days from the season start date of Oct. 7.

Avalanche: Logan O’Connor

O’Connor underwent hip surgery in early June. Given the five-to-six-month projected recovery window, he won’t be available until early November at best, putting him past the 10-game/24-day threshold required for LTIR. Colorado, which has $2.10MM in current cap space, will likely place O’Connor on standard IR if they don’t make any other cap-affecting moves between now and October. If they need the relief, though, they could create up to O’Connor’s $2.5MM cap hit in cushion for the first few weeks of the season if they need it.

Blues: Torey Krug

St. Louis general manager Doug Armstrong announced in May that Krug’s career is done because of pre-arthritic conditions in his left ankle that surgical intervention only slowly corrected. Since the Blues only have around $625K in cap space, Krug and his $6.5MM cap hit will be going on LTIR as soon as they need the flexibility for a call-up.

Canadiens: Carey Price

What’s certain is that Price won’t play this season or ever again. He’s entering the final season of his contract at a $10.5MM cap hit after confirming nearly two years ago that his knee injury would prohibit him from suiting up again. What’s uncertain is whether or not he’ll begin the season on LTIR. Montreal isn’t in a great position to optimize its LTIR relief, either by matching his cap hit in excess or getting down to $0 in space before placing him on the list. That’s made his contract a trade chip for teams who might need the relief more.

Devils: Johnathan Kovacevic

Kovacevic underwent knee surgery in early May and won’t be ready for training camp and likely opening night as well. Whether that stretches past Oct. 31 and makes him eligible for an LTIR placement if New Jersey needs cap relief early on remains to be seen.

Flyers: Ryan Ellis, Rasmus Ristolainen

Ellis’ career is over after sustaining a wide-ranging muscular injury in his pelvis just four games into his Flyers tenure in 2021. Ristolainen underwent a procedure on his right triceps tendon on March 26 with a six-month recovery time, putting him right on the edge of potential LTIR eligibility. Philly will have a better idea of the latter’s LTIR deployment potential after he undergoes his training camp physical. With $370K in cap space, they’re in a good position for near-max LTIR capture and will almost certainly at least place Ellis there to begin the year to give them call-up flexibility.

Golden Knights: Alex Pietrangelo

Pietrangelo is already on offseason LTIR, meaning the Knights actually still have to add an additional $1.2MM to their roster before opening night to optimize his capture and unlock his full $8.8MM cap hit’s worth of relief for this season. The team confirmed he requires multiple undisclosed but significant surgeries that will likely mark the end of his playing career, but it’s unclear if he’s actually had them done yet.

Jets: Adam Lowry

Lowry underwent hip surgery in late May and won’t be available until after Thanksgiving at the earliest. Winnipeg likely won’t be formalizing an LTIR placement with nearly $4MM in cap space, though.

Mammoth: Juuso Välimäki

Välimäki underwent ACL surgery in early March. He likely won’t end up on LTIR given Utah’s current cap flexibility ($6.68MM), but he’ll be out until at least early November so he’ll be there as an early-season option in case they need relief for whatever reason.

Oilers: Zach Hyman

Hyman’s inclusion here is on the speculative side. The winger could very well be ready for the start of the season. However, there hasn’t been much clarity on how much recovery he still needs after undergoing surgery to repair a severe wrist injury that kept him out of the Stanley Cup Final. A report in early June indicated there was uncertainty about his status for training camp, with no meaningful updates since then.

Panthers: Matthew Tkachuk

Tkachuk told ESPN’s Greg Wyshynski earlier this month that he’s still deciding whether he wants to undergo surgery to address the adductor issue that hampered him down the stretch and in the playoffs after sustaining it at the 4 Nations Face-Off. All signs point to him opting for it and spending the next two to three months on the shelf as a result, though. Placing him on LTIR is the only way the Panthers, who currently have a cap exceedance of $3.725MM, can be compliant to start the season without shedding a significant contract, something they aren’t keen to do.

Wild: Jonas Brodin

Minnesota has $9.41MM in cap space, but that number will shrink once they re-sign restricted free agent Marco Rossi (or add salary while trading his signing rights). Neither scenario will likely push them into a situation where they need to use LTIR relief, but they might have Brodin and his $6MM cap hit as an option for some short-term flexibility if required. He underwent an upper-body procedure in early June and is questionable for the beginning of the season, so it’s not yet clear if he’ll miss enough time to qualify.

Salary Cap Deep Dive: Pittsburgh Penguins

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Navigating the salary cap is one of the most important tasks for a front office.  Teams that can avoid total cap chaos by walking the tightrope of inking players to deals that match their value (or compensate for future value without breaking the bank) remain successful.  Those who don’t often see struggles and front office changes.

PHR will look at every NHL team and give a thorough look at their cap situation for the 2025-26 season.  This will focus more on players who are regulars on the roster versus those who may find themselves shuttling between the AHL and NHL.  All cap figures are courtesy of PuckPedia.  We’re currently covering the Metropolitan Division, next up are the Penguins.

Pittsburgh Penguins

Current Cap Hit: $82,466,429 (below the $95.5MM Upper Limit)

Entry-Level Contracts

F Rutger McGroarty (two years, $950K)
D Owen Pickering (two years, $886.7K)

Potential Bonuses
McGroarty: $500K
Pickering: $250K
Total: $750K

The hope was that McGroarty would lock down a full-time spot last season but it didn’t happen.  Instead, he spent most of the season with Wilkes-Barre/Scranton but showed well down the stretch which could give him a chance amidst a fairly deep group of depth forwards.  Even if he does play regularly, he’s unlikely to hit his two ‘A’ bonuses.

Pickering might be in the mix on the back end but their offseason defensive depth additions make it likely as things stand that he starts in the minors.  With 25 NHL games last season, he’s tracking towards a bridge deal, especially if he spends a good chunk of the year in the AHL.

Signed Through 2025-26, Non-Entry-Level

F Noel Acciari ($2MM, UFA)
D Alexander Alexeyev ($775K, RFA)
D Connor Clifton ($3.333MM, UFA)
F Connor Dewar ($1.1MM, UFA)
D Mathew Dumba ($3.75MM, UFA)
F Kevin Hayes ($3.571MM, UFA)*
F Danton Heinen ($2.25MM, UFA)
F Blake Lizotte ($1.85MM, UFA)
F Evgeni Malkin ($6.1MM, UFA)
F Anthony Mantha ($2.5MM, UFA)
D Ryan Shea ($900K, UFA)
G Arturs Silovs ($850K, RFA)
F Philip Tomasino ($1.75MM, RFA)

*Philadelphia is retaining an additional $3.571MM on Hayes’ deal.

Potential Bonuses
Mantha: $2MM

Let’s face it, this is quite the long list and that’s by design for GM Kyle Dubas who is setting up for maximum flexibility over the next couple of summers.

One part of that flexibility will be the end of Malkin’s contract.  A deal that took way longer than expected to hammer out, giving him four years at the age of 35 seemed to carry some risk but it has held up alright as he has notched 200 points in 232 games over that stretch although he is slowing down now.  With that in mind, he might not provide a particularly strong return on this final season but overall, they did reasonably well on this contract.  Malkin’s future with Pittsburgh and the NHL in general will be in question after this as the Penguins might not want to keep a player who would be 40 on a team that’s trying to rebuild while Malkin may not want to go elsewhere after spending what will be 20 years with the Penguins.  If he does, a one-year pact with lots of performance bonuses will be the deal other teams will offer.

The hope was that a change of scenery for Hayes might get him going after a tough year in St. Louis but instead, his role was reduced further and his performance dipped more.  It’s hard to see that changing but his track record is still good enough that he could land around $3MM or so on another short-term deal as long as this season is around how he did last year.  Mantha comes over from Calgary following an injury-riddled year that caused him to miss the final 69 games due to ACL surgery.  When he’s on, he can be an effective top-six piece but has done so sporadically to the point where he needed a one-year deal last summer coming off an inconsistent season.  If he rebounds, he could get back to the $4MM range but that’s far from a given.  His bonuses are fairly simple; he’ll receive $250K at every ten-game increment he plays from 10 to 80.

Heinen was acquired from Vancouver as part of the Marcus Pettersson trade last season and did okay with his new team.  He’s capable of putting up decent production from a bottom-six role which earned him this contract last summer but he’s not far removed from having to take a PTO either.  If he hovers around the 30-point mark again, he could command a similar price tag to this on the open market next summer.  Acciari’s first two seasons in Pittsburgh haven’t lived up to expectations.  More of an impactful player offensively in 2022-23, his production the last two years hasn’t added up to that mark.  He’s still a physical fourth liner who can kill penalties and win faceoffs but barring an uptick in output this season, Acciari is likely heading for a small dip in pay.

From a point-per-game perspective, last season wasn’t bad for Lizotte but the injury bug got him again for the second straight year.  While he can be a 30-point player when healthy, he needs to show he can stay in the lineup for closer to a full 82 games to have a shot at besting this deal next summer.  Tomasino had some decent moments after being picked up from Nashville.  It’s too early to say that he could be part of their longer-term plans which is why the one-year pact made sense for both sides.  He was non-tendered to avoid arbitration rights in June before re-signing and that could be his fate again unless there’s an uptick in his production.  Dewar also went through the non-tender process six weeks ago but, like Tomasino, quickly re-signed.  After seeing low minutes in Toronto, he fared better down the stretch but will need to be more of a third liner than a fourth if he wants to get to another level in terms of his contract instead of going year-to-year at only a bit above the league minimum.

Dallas signed Dumba last summer, feeling that he could still be a serviceable second-pairing player.  That didn’t happen.  Instead, he struggled in a very limited role before being scratched entirely in the playoffs and traded away with draft compensation for taking on the final year of his deal.  It’s possible that he rebounds but it’s also possible that he has a very limited role again.  At this point, he’d be hard-pressed to reach half of what he’s making now.  Clifton wasn’t able to establish himself as more of a third-pairing option with Buffalo in his two seasons with them before being moved in an offseason swap as well.  He’s a more reliable option than Dumba at this point and his market should be okay next summer, just with a price tag closer to the $2MM mark instead of more than $3MM once again.

Shea is a success story from Group Six free agency.  While not many of those players find better opportunities elsewhere, he did just that, going from never seeing NHL action in Dallas to playing in 70 games with Pittsburgh over the last two seasons, landing him two straight one-way deals.  With still a limited role, it’s hard to see him going much higher than this but it’s still a nice turnaround for someone earmarked as a full-time AHLer just a couple of years ago.  Alexeyev hardly played at all last season, leading to a non-tender from Washington.  He’ll need to at least establish himself as more of a viable sixth option or he could be heading toward two-way offers moving forward.  He’s still arbitration-eligible but unless he breaks out and has a big year, he’s a safe bet to be non-tendered again next offseason.

Silovs was brought in via a recent trade with Vancouver to take a run at a full-time NHL backup spot.  He had that going into last season with the Canucks but struggled mightily.  However, he had a solid year with AHL Abbotsford before playing a key role in their Calder Cup victory, making it unlikely he’d slip through waivers.  If he can establish himself as being at least a suitable full-season backup, doubling this price tag with arbitration rights is doable.

Signed Through 2026-27

F Justin Brazeau ($1.5MM, UFA)
F Sidney Crosby ($8.7MM, UFA)
D Erik Karlsson ($10MM, UFA)*
F Thomas Novak ($3.5MM, UFA)
D Parker Wotherspoon ($1MM, UFA)

*-San Jose is retaining an additional $1.5MM on Karlsson’s contract.

Crosby is quietly beginning a new contract with the Penguins this season although it’d be easy to miss that considering he has had the same cap hit since 2008, a price tag he has provided significant surplus value on.  At 38, he might still provide plenty of value on this contract coming off a 91-point season which shows he still has plenty left in the tank.  He’s been featured in plenty of trade speculation given that he’s nearing the end of his career and the Penguins aren’t close to contention but with full trade protection, Crosby will get to decide his fate.  But no matter where he winds up (and staying in Pittsburgh remains the overwhelmingly likely outcome), he’s a safe bet to continue to provide positive value money-wise.

Novak was brought over near the trade deadline in a trade with Nashville.  He didn’t come close to reaching the 40-point mark for the third straight year, instead barely amassing half of that despite some solid underlying numbers.  If he can even get into the mid-30s offensively, this deal should hold up well given the high demand for centers.  Brazeau was a full-time minor leaguer just a couple of years ago and only has one full NHL season under his belt.  However, he did well enough to land this deal in free agency.  If he puts up another couple of double-digit goal campaigns, he should be able to push past $2MM in 2027.

Karlsson hasn’t been able to come close to reaching 100 points again as he did in his final season in San Jose but he has remained one of the better offensive blueliners in the NHL.  His defensive warts notwithstanding, he’s someone who can still handle big minutes and while his price tag is an overpayment for his current performance, it’s probably only a few million above market value at most.  If he’s still an above-average offensive threat two years from now, a two-year deal even at 37 could be doable, albeit at a significantly lower price tag.  Wotherspoon had his best showing last season with Boston, holding his own in 55 games with the Bruins to earn the first seven-figure deal of his career.  If he can remain a capable third-pairing player over his time on this contract, doubling this price tag could be doable.

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Marc-Edouard Vlasic Intends To Play This Season, Comments On San Jose Buyout

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With training camps now around a month away, there should start to be an uptick in signings relatively soon as veterans look to find places to play for the upcoming season.  Veteran blueliner Marc-Edouard Vlasic was a late entrant to the free agent market and indicated to Stephane Cadorette of Le Journal de Quebec that he fully intends to play in the NHL in 2025-26.

The 38-year-old was a core piece on San Jose’s back end for the better part of a decade and a half before his role started to diminish significantly in recent years.  Last season, he spent time both on injured reserve and as a healthy scratch, limiting him to just a goal and two assists in 27 games with his average ice time dropping to 14:38, the lowest of his career.

In his prime, Vlasic was one of the top defensive blueliners in the NHL.  In particular, he has been quite adept at blocking shots as he’s the all-time league leader in that regard, per QuantHockey although it should be noted that the statistic has only been tracked for around the last two decades.

Vlasic had one year left on his deal before free agency opened up with the Sharks apparently deciding very last minute to execute the buyout.  The veteran voiced some frustration about how that came about, noting that in the exit interview back in April that they wanted him to continue to provide the veteran leadership they were seeking.  Then, a few days before the end of June, they informed him that they’d be buying out the final year of his deal after 19 seasons.

From the outside, the move could have been reasonably foreseeable given his $7MM AAV and the very limited role he had been filling.  Rather than string along a player who was once a franchise pillar with minimal ice time for yet another year, they opted to pay his $2MM signing bonus plus two-thirds of his $3.5MM salary over the next two seasons to move on.

GM Mike Grier wasted little time filling Vlasic’s spot on the roster.  He brought in Dmitry Orlov in free agency while claiming fellow lefty Nick Leddy off waivers while John Klingberg adds some depth to their group of right-shot options as well.  With what they had planned, there was clearly no room to keep Vlasic around.

As for Vlasic, given how limited his role was last season, it would be surprising to see him land a contract of any significance on the open market as it’s likely teams will envision him as a depth option similar to how he was deployed in San Jose rather than a full-time player.  Several of those players will be signing tryout agreement in the weeks to come and it wouldn’t be shocking to see Vlasic need to go that route as well as he looks to extend his NHL career to a 20th season.

Adam Ruzicka Re-Signs In KHL

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August 15: While Ruzicka was hoping to return to the NHL, it won’t be happening.  His agent told RIA Novosti’s Andrey Senchenko that Ruzicka has signed a new two-year deal with Spartak.

August 5: Free agent forward Adam Ruzicka turned to the KHL last season and had a solid showing in Russia with Spartak but notably hasn’t signed a new deal there yet.  Spartak advisor Valeri Kamensky told Alexander Abustin of Sport-Express that the reason Ruzicka hasn’t re-signed yet is because he’s holding out hope to get another NHL opportunity.

The 26-year-old was a fourth-round pick by Calgary back in 2017, going 109th overall.  He spent parts of four seasons with the Flames before being claimed off waivers by Arizona in early 2024.  However, a month later, Ruzicka and the Coyotes agreed on a mutual contract termination a month later, making him an unrestricted free agent.  After another NHL chance didn’t materialize in short order, he ultimately signed with Spartak in late May 2024.

Ruzicka was certainly productive in Russia, notching 26 goals and 19 assists in 65 regular season games, good for fifth in team scoring.  He was even better in the playoffs, picking up seven goals and five helpers in 12 postseason contests, making the most of his opportunity to play a more offensive role after being more of a depth player in the NHL.

Over his four NHL seasons, Ruzicka has played in 117 games, picking up 14 goals and 26 assists.  However, a good chunk of that production came in 2022-23 when he recorded 20 points in just 44 games with Calgary before his output tailed off the following year.  Basically, he’s not too far removed from being a legitimate depth contributor at the top level.

Kamensky acknowledged that discussions are underway with Ruzicka so if he doesn’t get another NHL look, he’ll simply re-sign.  But, for now at least, it appears he’s hoping to get another chance at the top level first.

Evan Cormier Remaining In Panthers Organization On AHL Deal

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The Panthers organization is retaining goaltender Evan Cormier on an AHL contract with the Charlotte Checkers, per a team release. Cormier has spent the last two seasons on AHL deals with the Checkers, signing NHL contracts with Florida at each trade deadline to give them an emergency backup option down the stretch and in the postseason. He cleared waivers each time to play out the regular season in the minors.

Cormier, 27, was a fourth-round pick by the Devils in 2016 but saw his signing rights expire following the 2017-18 season. The team nonetheless signed him to his entry-level contract midway through the following year, bringing him out of the University of Guelph to make the jump to the pros. He spent the next three years in the organization with AHL Binghamton and ECHL Adirondack before being non-tendered following the 2021-22 season.

From 2021 to 23, Cormier primarily played in the Jets organization under contract with AHL Manitoba. Like he has the past two years with Florida, he inked a two-way NHL deal with Winnipeg at the 2023 trade deadline to give them a playoff EBUG option.

Cormier has still never played an NHL game, though, and last season was his first without AHL time since he turned pro. The 6’3″ Ontario native instead spent the year with Florida’s second-tier affiliate, ECHL Savannah, where he struggled with a 3.38 GAA, .887 SV%, one shutout, and a 17-13-4 record in 36 appearances.

With the Cats having Cooper Black, Brandon Bussi, and Kirill Gerasimyuk all signed to two-way deals for the upcoming campaign, their AHL goaltending situation is set. Cormier will likely reprise the same ECHL role for them next season, and the likelihood of him getting another late-year NHL deal is slim with Florida entering the season with five contracted options between the pipes.

Jakub Zboril Signs With Czechia’s HC Vitkovice

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Left-shot defenseman Jakub Zbořil has signed on with HC Vítkovice of the Czech Extraliga, per a team announcement. It’s a one-year deal.

Zbořil, 28, was the first of the ill-fated stretch of three first-round picks the Bruins held in the 2015 draft. He would play another two full seasons of junior hockey with QMJHL Saint John before making his pro debut for AHL Providence in 2017, and his NHL debut with Boston came one year later.

The 6’1″, 201-lb rearguard went pointless in two games before returning to his minor-league role. But when the COVID pandemic struck, he spent the early part of the 2020-21 season on loan back to his home country of Czechia with HC Kometa Brno, and his stint there was evidently enough for Boston to finally make Zbořil a roster lock when play resumed with the shortened schedule.

Zbořil played in 42 of 56 games for the Bruins in 2021, the most he’d ever log in a single season. While touted as a mobile, two-way prospect, he never rose above the No. 7/8 position on the Bruins’ depth chart and ended up back on waivers and in Providence to begin the 2023-24 season.

It took Zbořil until the 2022-23 season to record his first and only career NHL goal, and he only managed 76 appearances in parts of four seasons with the B’s with a 1-15–16 scoring line and an even rating while averaging 15:38 per game. The Bruins did control a respectable 52.6% of shot attempts and 51.1% of expected goals with him on the ice at even strength, however.

After being waived and assigned to Providence out of camp in 2023, his time in the organization was short-lived. He was sent to the Blue Jackets at the trade deadline in the deal that brought Andrew Peeke to Boston, finishing the season with no goals and 13 assists in 46 AHL games split between Providence and Cleveland. The Jackets – nor any other NHL team – brought him in when he reached unrestricted free agency the following summer.

Zbořil instead returned home on a long-term deal with HC Dynamo Pardubice that was initially supposed to keep him there through the 2028-29 season. Neither side was particularly happy with his performance last year, though – he had 14 points and a +4 rating in 30 games and was released at the end of July. After a couple of weeks without a deal, he’ll look to reestablish himself on a Vítkovice team that employs former NHLers Yohann Auvitu, Marek Hrivík, and Samuel Knazko.

Hurricanes Open To Reunion With Jack Roslovic

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As noted by independent insider Frank Seravalli for Bleacher Report earlier this week, the Hurricanes have maintained interest in bringing UFA Jack Roslovic back to the club, but they “don’t really have a spot for him at the moment.”

Things have continued to be relatively quiet on the market for Roslovic, who’s held the title of top remaining UFA for well over a month now, aside from rumblings that he’s receiving overseas offers from KHL clubs. Roslovic, 28, landed a one-year, $2.8MM commitment from Carolina on the open market last summer and repaid them by tying his career high of 22 goals. That was quite the resurgence after he was limited to nine tallies in 59 games split between the Blue Jackets and Rangers in 2023-24.

While the Hurricanes could use another middle-six option – preferably one with a higher offensive ceiling than current projected second-line center Jesperi Kotkaniemi – Roslovic likely isn’t their first-choice option. Seravalli’s comment that there isn’t a clear spot for Roslovic in their lineup as things stand stems from how last season ended. Despite that regular-season production, he ended up sitting in the press box for a good portion of the postseason, including the final three games of their Eastern Conference Final loss to the Panthers. He scored a goal and three assists in nine playoff games but was a healthy scratch on six occasions, although his average ice time didn’t change significantly.

That said, there’s likely a place for another NHL forward in Carolina to push a name like Mark Jankowski or Tyson Jost onto the waiver wire and out of a top-14 spot. Roslovic isn’t and won’t be the needle-mover they have in mind, especially since they still have over $10MM in cap space to burn, but he’s a fine fallback option if his other NHL leads end up not panning out. Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet said early this month that Roslovic still had multiple offers on the table but wasn’t rushing to sign any of them.

Pat Maroon Joins USHL’s Muskegon Lumberjacks As Assistant Coach

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After announcing his retirement earlier this year, longtime NHL winger Pat Maroon is making his first foray into coaching as an assistant with the USHL’s Muskegon Lumberjacks, the team announced Friday.

Maroon, 37, jumps behind the bench just a few months after his final NHL game and does so into the United States’ top junior environment – a league he never played in himself despite spending his early development south of the border. The St. Louis native played Tier II juniors in the U.S. for the NAHL’s Texarkana and St. Louis Bandits, where his immense offensive success and physicality made him a sixth-round pick by the Flyers in 2007, before jumping to the OHL with the London Knights.

He’ll now help oversee a Lumberjacks roster that already has a few notable names locked in for 2025-26. Among them is Canadian center Tynan Lawrence, a projected top-10 pick in the 2026 draft, who refuted CHL interest to stay in Muskegon. Also on Muskegon’s roster are NHL-drafted forwards Melvin Novotny (Sabres, 2025, 7-195) and Viktor Nörringer (Predators, 2024, 4-127). Lawrence returns from last season, when he helped the Lumberjacks win their first Clark Cup title since their inception in 2010.

That trio will have the benefit of working with a three-time Stanley Cup champion in Maroon, who turned an odd development path into an NHL career spanning 14 years with over 800 appearances and 300 points.

Blue Jackets Re-Sign Daemon Hunt To Two-Way Deal

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The Blue Jackets have signed defenseman Daemon Hunt to a two-way deal for 2025-26, per a team announcement. Financial terms were not disclosed.

Hunt, 23, was their last remaining unsigned restricted free agent. The Jackets acquired the lefty from the Wild in the David Jiricek trade last November, but he didn’t see any NHL ice for them after the swap.

Instead, the 2020 third-round pick finished the season with the AHL’s Cleveland Monsters, where he recorded a 2-12–14 scoring line in 48 games with a -8 rating. That marked a step back from his offensive production with Minnesota’s affiliate, the Iowa Wild, in 2023-24, when he produced over half a point per game with 29 in 51 contests.

Near the end of his time with the Wild, Hunt had worked his way up to the No. 8-9 range on Minnesota’s defensive depth chart. He has 13 NHL appearances under his belt, 12 of which came in 2023-24. The Manitoba native played sparingly when dressed, though, recording one assist and averaging only 11:14 per game. He still managed to average two shot attempts per game and posted strong possession numbers in his limited deployment (54.6 CF%, 57.1 xGF% at even strength).

The Blue Jackets’ defense returns unchanged from last season aside from the departure of veteran Jack Johnson, meaning there’s little chance for Hunt to work his way into an opening-night job. Nonetheless, he and prospect Stanislav Svozil are their clear top recall options from Cleveland should they need help on the left side of the blue line throughout the year. Hunt will need to clear waivers if the Jackets want to assign him to Cleveland, though, something he hasn’t had to do before.

Hunt will be a restricted free agent again next summer. The Jackets now have 43 players under contract for 2025-26.

Red Wings Sign Travis Hamonic

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The Red Wings signed right-shot defenseman Travis Hamonic to a one-year, one-way contract. The Manitoba native will earn $1MM with no potential performance bonuses, as he missed the age cutoff for a 35+ contract by a few weeks.

Hamonic, who turns 35 tomorrow, was a second-round pick of the Islanders in 2008. While he was a top-four fixture out of the gate for them, subsequent stops with the Flames, Canucks, and Senators since his departure from New York in 2017 have seen his game slowly trail off as he aged.

That was especially true over the last two seasons. Ottawa had acquired Hamonic from Vancouver near the 2022 trade deadline and inked him to a two-year, $2.2MM contract in the summer of 2023 after his first full season in the Canadian capital saw him produce 21 points in 75 games while averaging 18:34 of ice time per night.

Immediately after signing the deal, though, Hamonic’s game dropped below replacement level. Over the life of the deal, during which a no-movement clause prohibited the Sens from waiving him, he played 107 games with 13 points, a -26 rating, and averaged only 16 minutes per game. His possession impacts, particularly in 2023-24, were among the worst in the league. That year, he had a -10% relative Corsi impact at even strength despite starting the majority of his shifts in the offensive zone. In total, Ottawa was outscored 77-44 and outchanced 787-635 with Hamonic on the ice at 5-on-5 in the last two years.

Given the Red Wings’ possession struggles, that makes Hamonic a peculiar fit, particularly on a guaranteed deal with a seven-figure cap hit when he was likely approaching PTO territory. Jack Johnson, a veteran lefty with similarly underwhelming impacts in a similar role, recently settled for a tryout with the Wild.

Detroit already has a wealth of No. 5-7 caliber veterans on its roster, including Erik Gustafsson and Justin Holl. Right-shot depth was a bit of a concern for them with Holl and Jacob Bernard-Docker as their only experienced options behind core piece Moritz Seider, but Hamonic presumably slots in behind both of them on their depth chart as he battles for a roster spot in camp. It’s worth noting his $1MM cap hit is below the maximum buriable threshold, so he wouldn’t carry a cap penalty for the Wings if they placed him on waivers for assignment to AHL Grand Rapids.

The wild card on Detroit’s right side is 2023 first-rounder Axel Sandin-Pellikka. The offensive-minded righty will be playing in North America this season, but whether his development would be best served by some AHL time or immediate top-four deployment in the NHL remains to be seen. He’s still only 20 years old and had one assist and a -3 rating in five regular-season and playoff games for Grand Rapids at the end of last season, but given their lack of other top-four capable options, they might not have much of a choice.

Detroit has four standard contract slots remaining after signing Hamonic.

Image courtesy of Timothy T. Ludwig-Imagn Images.

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