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Calgary Flames Sign Martin Pospisil To Two-Year Extension

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The Calgary Flames have signed forward Martin Pospisil to a two-year, $2MM contract extension. The new deal will carry a $1MM cap hit through the 2025-26 season.

Pospisil has become a fan-favorite since playing in his NHL debut on November 4th. He scored his first career goal in his first game, kicking off a hot streak that saw Pospisil net three goals and five points in his first seven NHL games. He’s lost his scoring touch since, totaling just 11 points through 34 games up to this point. His role has become much grittier, with Pospisil tallying 23 penalty minutes since January 1st – more than any other Flame. He’s up to 37 penalty minutes on the season, ranking second on the team to Andrew Mangiapane.

Calgary drafted Pospisil in the fourth round of the 2018 NHL Draft. He’s already played more NHL games than all but two players taken that round, behind Philipp Kurashev and Paul Cotter. Pospisil turned pro soon after getting drafted, playing 26 games with the Flames AHL affiliate, the Stockton Heat, in the 2019-20 season. He recorded 10 points and 56 penalty minutes that season – ranking third on the team in penalty minutes despite playing roughly 20 fewer games than anyone else in the top five.

Pospisil made his professional debut soon after his draft, playing in 26 games with the AHL’s Stockton Heat in the 2019-20 season. He quickly established himself as a physical presence, ranking third on the team with 56 penalty minutes, despite sitting out 29 of the team’s 45 games. That presence has followed him, with Pospisil setting a career-high 95 penalty minutes in 47 games during the 2021-22 season. He’s now proving his physicality at the top level, throwing hits at a rate greater than any other Flame and earning his first million-dollar contract.  That physicality got him into some trouble last night against Boston when he received a major penalty for cross-checking but Sportsnet’s Eric Francis relayed earlier today that there would be no supplementary discipline heading his way.

Afternoon Notes: Walker, Tarasenko, Rempal

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The Philadelphia Flyers are seeking a first-round pick for defenseman Sean Walker, per Daily Faceoff’s Frank Seravalli. Walker has been a trade candidate for much of the season, though not much has come out about what his asking price may be. The Flyers acquired Walker this summer as part of a three-team trade with the Columbus Blue Jackets and Los Angeles Kings. Philadelphia also acquired Calvin Petersen, Helge Grans, and three draft picks in the deal.

This season is Walker’s first away from the Kings and he’s made the most out of the change in scenery, with 18 points in 51 games this season already surpassing his point totals in each of the last three seasons. He is on an 82-game pace of 28 points, a mark that would break his previous career-high by four points. He’s spent much of the season on Philadelphia’s second pairing alongside Nick Seeler. But Philadelphia’s recent acquisition of Jamie Drysdale has put pressure on Walker’s top-four role. It seems the team is leaning into that shift, now testing the 29-year-old Walker’s value on the open market.

Other notes from around the league:

  • Ottawa Senators winger Vladimir Tarasenko has changed his agent again, now represented by Craig Oster of Newsport Sports. Newsport represents six other Senators, including Brady Tkachuk and Joshua Norris. This is the second time Tarasenko has changed agents in the last seven months, with his last change coming just before signing a one-year, $5MM contract with Ottawa. Tarasenko, 32, has been mentioned as a possible rental option with the trade deadline approaching. He has 13 goals and 33 points through 45 games this season while playing on Ottawa’s third line.
  • The Vegas Golden Knights have sent forward Sheldon Rempal back to the minor leagues. The 28-year-old was recalled on February 5th, serving as a healthy scratch for the team’s Sunday win over the Edmonton Oilers. Rempal played four NHL games earlier in the season, scoring two goals and recording one penalty. He’s also scored 20 goals and 31 points in 41 AHL games this season, leading the Henderson Silver Knights in goals.

Wild Notes: Lettieri, Brodin, Chisholm, Raška

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The Minnesota Wild have activated forward Vinni Lettieri from injured reserve. Lettieri has been out since December 30th with a lower-body injury, missing the team’s last 14 games. He’s appeared in 19 games when healthy this year, scoring three goals and four points. He has also scored eight points in 10 AHL games.

Lettieri will return to the lineup looking to top 20 games in a season for only the third time in his career. The 29-year-old has played in 102 career NHL games over the last six seasons, though much of them have come in a relief role. The 2021-22 season marked the most that Lettieri has played in one season, as he appeared in 31 games and scored 10 points with the Anaheim Ducks. His only other season of more than 20 games came in the 2018-19 season – Lettieri’s rookie year – which saw the centerman net three points across 27 games.

Lettieri has also totaled 237 points across 277 career AHL games.

Other Minnesota Wild notes:

  • The Wild will be without both Jonas Brodin and Declan Chisholm for their Wednesday night matchup against the Chicago Blackhawks, per team reporter Sarah McLellan. McLellan shares that both players haven’t skated much, as Brodin is facing illness and Chisholm was traveling internationally after the team claimed him off waivers from the Winnipeg Jets last week. Both will look to enter the lineup when Minnesota hosts the Pittsburgh Penguins on Friday.
  • Minnesota has sent forward Adam Raška to the minor leagues. Raška has spent a month with the NHL roster, slotting into five games but failing to change his stat line. The 22-year-old winger has also played in 20 AHL games this season, recording one goal, 61 penalty minutes, and a -5. Raška has appeared in 13 NHL games over the last three seasons, though he’s still searching for his first point. That search will be delayed a bit longer as the former seventh-round pick rejoins the Iowa Wild.

Winnipeg Activates Mark Scheifele, Axel Jonsson-Fjällby Clears Waivers

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2/7: Jonsson-Fjällby has cleared waivers. He will be assigned to the AHL’s Manitoba Moose, per the Winnipeg Free Press’ Ken Wiebe.

2/6: The Winnipeg Jets have placed forward Axel Jonsson-Fjällby on waivers to make space for the return of star forward Mark Scheifele. Scheifele has been out since January 11th, missing the team’s last six games. Winnipeg has felt the effects of Scheifele’s absence, going 2-3-1 without the forward, getting outscored nine to 14. The team’s performance has been a far, far cry from the dazzling 16-1-2 record they set in Scheifele’s most recent 18 games.

Scheifele was nursing a four-game point streak prior to his injury, helping build his season total to 14 goals and 41 points in 41 games – a mark that still leads the team in scoring despite his absences. Scheifele has been Winnipeg’s most-used forward, averaging just over 20 minutes of ice time this season. The mark has brought his career average ice time to an even 20 minutes through 764 career games. Every single one of those games has been spent with the Jets, who drafted Scheifele seventh overall in the 2011 NHL Draft. He has since played in the 10th-most games of anyone in that draft class, though he’s scored the fourth-most points. Scheifele was part of a loaded 2011 Draft that also featured Nikita Kucherov, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Mika Zibanejad, and Dougie Hamilton.

With Scheifele returning, the Jets will now risk losing winger Jonsson-Fjällby, who is in his second season with the organization after being claimed off of waivers from the Washington Capitals. Jonsson-Fjällby was drafted by Washington in the fifth round of the 2016 NHL Draft and made his professional debut with the AHL’s Hershey Bears in 2018-19. He’s since played in 99 career NHL games, scoring 23 points. Jonsson-Fjällby has five points in 26 NHL games this year, as well as five points in 10 AHL games. He will look to jump back into the NHL lineup soon, eyeing the 100th game of his NHL career.

Mikhail Sergachev And Erik Cernak Will Play Tonight

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Tampa Bay Lightning beat writer Chris Krenn is reporting that Lightning defensemen Mikhail Sergachev and Erik Cernak will dress tonight when the team takes on the New York Rangers. Both players have been out for extended periods of time as the Lightning have dealt with injuries to key contributors throughout the first half of the season.

Cernak has been out since January 11th with an upper-body injury and has missed seven games. He was knocked out of action after taking a hit from New Jersey Devils’ forward Nathan Bastian in what was the third instance of Cernak being knocked out of action due to a hit in less than a year. Cernak was also injured after a Josh Anderson hit knocked him out of action for three games back on December 31st. Most famously, Cernak was hit in last year’s NHL playoffs by then Toronto Maple Leafs forward Michael Bunting, the hit knocked Cernak out of the playoffs and earned Bunting a three-game suspension.

This year Cernak has five assists in 39 games and is averaging just over 19 minutes a game in ice-time.

Sergachev has been out of the Lightning lineup since December 21st, a period of 17 games. The 25-year-old has been activated off the long-term injured reserve and will dress tonight. The former ninth overall pick in 2016 has two goals and 17 assists in 33 games this year while he has averaged almost 23 minutes of ice time per game. He was struggling before his injury after posting career-best numbers last year.

There is a possibility that Tampa Bay will elect to pair Sergachev and Cernak together on the Lightning’s second defensive pairing as the duo have practiced together in recent days.

Blackhawks Activate Tyler Johnson, Recall Louis Crevier

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Tracey Myers of NHL.com is reporting that the Chicago Blackhawks have made a pair of roster moves today activating forward Tyler Johnson off the injured reserve and recalling defenseman Louis Crevier from the Rockford IceHogs.

Johnson had been sidelined with a right foot injury since December 31st and will presumably slide into the Blackhawks’ third line alongside Lukas Reichel and Mackenzie Entwistle. Given the Blackhawks forward personnel, the 33-year-old Johnson will also likely see time on Chicago’s first powerplay unit.

Early in his career, Johnson was a perennial 20-goal scorer but hasn’t hit that mark since the 2018-19 season. This year Johnson has nine goals and four assists in 35 games and could become a trade chip for Chicago as we near the NHL trade deadline. Johnson is in the last year of his contract and carries a $5MM cap hit, and while he does have a 20-team trade list there could be interest in the veteran as a buy-low option if he can show he still has his scoring touch.

Crevier on the other hand, has dressed in 15 games this season for Chicago and has three assists. He will likely serve as the Blackhawks’ healthy scratch tonight against the Minnesota Wild but could see action at some point during his recall. The 22-year-old has yet to score a goal in professional hockey at either the AHL or NHL level but does offer some other attributes that aren’t often seen in professional hockey. Standing 6’8” tall, Crevier is very solid in the defensive zone as his size allows him to disrupt offensive sequences and close gaps that smaller players might not be able to.

Brenden Dillon To Have Hearing With Department Of Player Safety

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The NHL’s Department of Player Safety tweeted this morning that Winnipeg Jets defenseman Brenden Dillon will have a hearing today for his illegal check to the head of Pittsburgh Penguins forward Noel Acciari. According to Frank Seravalli of DailyFaceoff, the hearing will be a phone hearing, meaning that Dillon will receive a suspension of five games or less.

The hit happened at the 4:15 mark of the second period in a game that was 1-0 Pittsburgh at the time. Dillon was originally given a two-minute penalty and then received a match penalty on the play after it was reviewed.

Acciari hit the ice hard and in a scary moment tried to get up to his feet but fell back to the ice. He eventually skated off with assistance from the Penguins training staff and left the game with an undisclosed injury. Acciari was visibly bloody from the incident. The Penguins scored twice on the five-minute powerplay and eventually beat the Jets 3-0.

It wasn’t Dillon’s first run-in with the Penguins as Dillon has had some tough battles with Pittsburgh while he was a member of the Washington Capitals. He also had an incident back in January 2022 where he broke the jaw of former Penguins’ center Teddy Blueger with what appeared to be a check to the head. Dillon escaped discipline for that hit, but that doesn’t appear to be the case this time around.

Dillon’s absence will create a hole on the Jets’ backend as he has been playing over 18 minutes a night this season and is having one of his better offensive seasons while still providing sound defensive play for the team.

Metropolitan Notes: Rangers, Cizikas, Fasching

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The Rangers are unwilling to move their first-round pick in the 2024 draft in their pursuit of a forward ahead of the March 8 trade deadline, TSN’s Darren Dreger said on Tuesday’s edition of “Insider Trading.” That directive comes from owner James Dolan, who wants the Rangers to be a part of the final fully in-person draft before decentralization at Sphere in Las Vegas. Dolan is the majority owner of the Sphere property.

Dreger doesn’t rule out the Rangers shopping their 2025 first-round selection in a deal for an impact forward, although that would leave them with just two selections in the first three rounds over the next two drafts. GM Chris Drury dealt away both the Rangers’ 2024 and 2025 third-round picks in deals for wingers Patrick Kane and Vladimir Tarasenko before last season’s trade deadline.

The Rangers’ need for a middle-six impact piece is once again obvious if they want to pull ahead of the crowded playoff field in the Eastern Conference, especially with center Filip Chytil sidelined for the remainder of the season. Dreger said the Rangers made an offer to the Flames for Elias Lindholm before they traded him to the Canucks last week, although it’s unclear whether Drury shopped his 2025 first-round pick to do so.

No Ranger on the team’s third or fourth line has cracked ten goals this season, and fourth-line center Barclay Goodrow boasts some of the league’s worst even-strength possession numbers this season. A domino effect-type acquisition would allow 30-year-old Jonny Brodzinski, who’s been effective in a major-league role this season, to slide down to the fourth line and provide added value.

Elsewhere from the Metropolitan Division on Wednesday morning:

  • Islanders center Casey Cizikas skated in a regular jersey at practice for the first time since sustaining a lower-body injury on Jan. 9, per NHL.com’s Stefen Rosner. Cizikas, 32, returned to practice with a non-contact designation on Sunday and is eligible for activation off long-term injured reserve ahead of Thursday’s game against the Lightning. Now in the third season of a six-year, $15MM contract, the Toronto native has five goals and 11 points in 39 games in his usual fourth-line role between veteran enforcers Cal Clutterbuck and Matt Martin.
  • Staying on Long Island, Islanders winger Hudson Fasching was not at practice Wednesday and remains out on a day-to-day basis with a lower-body injury, Rosner said. The 28-year-old has not skated since sustaining the injury in a loss to the Canadiens on Jan. 25. Fasching has been a healthy scratch for multiple stretches this season but played in eight consecutive games prior to the injury. The veteran minor-leaguer earned a two-year, one-way extension worth $1.55MM after working his way into a full-time role in New York in the back half of last season but has been largely ineffective with three goals and eight points in 35 games in 2023-24.

Latest On Noah Hanifin

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Flames defenseman Noah Hanifin’s agents are expected to present their decision on a contract extension to team management “in the coming days,” TSN’s Chris Johnston reports on Tuesday’s edition of “Insider Trading.” Hanifin, 27, is a pending UFA and would immediately become the top defenseman available on the trade market if the Flames make him available ahead of the March 8 deadline.

As of now, they haven’t done so. Hanifin has changed his willingness to sign an extension in Calgary multiple times over the past nine months, dating back to an initial report from TSN’s Pierre LeBrun in June that Hanifin would not sign a new deal.

Multiple teams have documented interest in Hanifin. The Panthers inquired about him soon after the June report went public, while the Coyotes showed interest in him as recently as December.

There was renewed optimism for an extension after Hanifin publically reversed course during the 2023 preseason, saying he was “absolutely” willing to remain in Calgary. Multiple sources reported the Flames and Hanifin made progress on an eight-year extension carrying a $7.5MM AAV ($60MM total value), but the team then paused contract talks with all pending UFAs after a 2-6-1 skid to start the season. The two sides have not engaged in further talks, but the deal is reportedly still on the table for Hanifin if he opts to extend.

Johnston doesn’t know which way Hanifin’s camp will sway, although one option is ruled out: letting him walk for nothing in July. “If Calgary is not able to reach some kind of contract extension with Hanifin, they will use the time between now and March 8th to find a suitor somewhere to trade him,” Johnston said.

The good news for Calgary is that Hanifin is having one of the best seasons of his career. He’s third among a deep Flames defense corps in scoring, but his nine goals and 26 points through 50 games have him on pace to crack the 40-point plateau for the second time in the last three years despite a decrease in power-play time.

Hanifin is also logging the most minutes of his career at 23:33 per game – a figure that will increase as the deadline draws closer based on his recent usage. He’s seen significant penalty kill time with positive possession control results relative to his teammates, too. However, at even strength, his 49.6% Corsi share is a career-low.

Combine his potential on-ice impact with his bargain-bin $4.95MM cap hit, which Calgary could easily retain up to 50% of, and they’ll likely net their second first-round pick of deadline season after fetching one from the Canucks as part of the return for center Elias Lindholm last week – if Hanifin doesn’t sign an extension, of course.

Evening Snapshots: Coyotes, Blue Jackets, Acciari

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For the past two decades, the Arizona Coyotes have been looking for a long-term home for the franchise. Originally moving to Phoenix from Winnipeg in 1996, the team played at the America West Center until 2003, when they made the move to Gila River Arena before finally landing at Mullett Arena at the start of the 2022-23 NHL season. With a desperate need to find a long-term arena, the Coyotes are once again locked in a battle with several local governments to get funding.

Although two artificial deadlines have come and passed, Frank Seravalli of The Daily Faceoff wrote today that an answer could come within the next few weeks, and potentially as early as the upcoming weekend. In the article, Seravalli listed three possibilities still on the table for the resolution: break ground on a publicly funded parcel of land, sell the team to secure private funding in the Phoenix Metro area or move the team to Salt Lake City, UT.

Being the most interesting option of the three, the idea of moving or creating a team in Salt Lake City has picked up steam in the last few weeks, especially with Utah Jazz owner Ryan Smith requesting the initiation of a formal expansion process on January 24th. While missing the playoffs in 17 of 26 seasons, a bankruptcy, and multiple different ownership changes, the idea of the Coyotes moving north to Utah may become a very realistic possibility in the near future.

Other snapshots:

  • Although they will not be hosting the 2025 Winter Classic, reports are alluding to the idea that the Columbus Blue Jackets may be hosting a Stadium Series game as soon as next season (Article Link). Being one of only a handful of teams not to host an outdoor game up to this point, the Blue Jackets appear set to host an outdoor game at Ohio Stadium, home of the Ohio State Buckeyes football program. Although nothing has been confirmed yet for the 2024-25 NHL season, the article indicates that NHL representatives were seen surveying the property during Ohio State’s game against the Michigan State Spartans on November 11th.
  • During the team’s game tonight against the Winnipeg Jets, the Pittsburgh Penguins announced that forward Noel Acciari would not return to the game. During the second period, Winnipeg defenseman Brenden Dillon delivered a hit that made contact with Acciari’s head, resulting in a match penalty on the play. After receiving the hit from Dillon, Acciari attempted to get up, but quickly fell back down on the ice, indicating that he may be headed for concussion protocol.

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