PHR Mailbag: Goalies, Mock Draft, Flyers, Avalanche, Devils, Islanders, NHL-CHL Rule, Rentals
Topics in this edition of the PHR Mailbag include the goaltending market, questions about Colorado’s upcoming offseason, and much more. If your question doesn’t appear here, check back in our previous two mailbag columns.
@3rdWorldGhost: Where do these goalies end up? – Markstrom, Saros, Gibson, Korpisalo, Nedeljkovic, Samsonov, Ullmark, and what other goalies do you see moving?
What UFAs end up in Chicago?
What’s your top 10 mock draft?
Do the Panthers blow it up if they win?
There’s a lot to dig into here so these will be pretty quick answers. We now know that Jacob Markstrom will be with New Jersey and Alex Nedeljkovic is staying in Pittsburgh. We also now know Joonas Korpisalo and Linus Ullmark have traded places. As for the other goalies, I’m leaning toward Juuse Saros staying in Nashville while John Gibson landing in Toronto is something I’ve had kicking around for a bit, assuming they’re not on his no-trade list and Anaheim holds back some salary. My original landing spot for Ilya Samsonov went out the window with the goalie movement this week so let’s go with him landing in Chicago. There are other goalies who will move, largely of the backup variety, headlined by Laurent Brossoit and Alex Stalock. Guessing where they’ll land on that particular carousel is nothing short of a dart throw, however.
Looking back at my picks for our upcoming UFA rankings (which will require some adjustments for that goalie movement), I had them picked for Jake Guentzel, Alexander Wennberg, Daniel Sprong, and Matt Grzelcyk plus Samsonov now. Note that we make picks independently of each other knowing that one signing often blocks others on that team so don’t interpret that as me picking all of them, they’re all individual one-off predictions. (Keep this in mind when the full predictions come out in the coming days.)
Guentzel is the headliner while the others I picked as short-term bridge players to give their prospects some time to develop. I don’t think they’ll land all of those players but if they got Guentzel plus a floor-raising veteran or two, that wouldn’t be a bad trip through free agency. I wouldn’t be shocked if there’s some activity on the trade front as well where they take on a short-term contract as they’ve done lately.
As for a mock draft, here are my predictions as things currently stand:
1) SJ – F Macklin Celebrini
2) CHI – D Artyom Levshunov
3) ANA – D Anton Silayev
4) CBJ – F Ivan Demidov
5) MTL – F Cayden Lindstrom
6) UTA – D Zeev Buium
7) OTT – F Bennett Sennecke
8) SEA – D Sam Dickinson
9) CGY – D Carter Yakemchuk
10) NJ – F Tij Iginla
Meanwhile, we released our Round One Mock Draft earlier today so be sure to check that out if you haven’t already done so.
I don’t see a full-scale blow-up coming from Florida. Obviously, they’re not going to be able to afford to keep all of their pending free agents so they will probably take a small step back from that. But even if that happens, they should still be viewed as a contender. If you have a shot at contending, you probably won’t be blowing things up. Besides, they don’t have control of their next two first-round picks so if they were going to take a step back, they wouldn’t even be able to benefit from it in the form of adding high-end prospects. It’s full steam ahead for them as a result.
Emoney123: How would you rate the Flyers’ rebuild? Besides the hype of Michkov, how soon might Gendron, Bonk, Barkey, Tuomaala, Rizzo, and McDonald play in the NHL? How would you rate the farm system overall? Thanks!
I think they’re off to a good start to their rebuild but there is still some work to be done. If it’s a larger-scale teardown which I think is what they were aiming for at least, they don’t have enough pieces yet. I’m answering out of order but I think this is a mid-pack system at the moment. If you’re planning to exit a rebuild, you don’t want a mid-pack system to start from; obviously, you want to be at least somewhere in the top ten.
Of the players you listed, the only ones that might be close to seeing NHL action is Massimo Rizzo. A good showing to start next season with Lehigh Valley would get him on the recall radar. Samu Tuomaala could also get into that mix as well. I’m not convinced Alexis Gendron will be an NHL regular; I need to see some sustained pro success to show that he’s not just a high-end junior scorer. Denver Barkey has another year of major junior left and, like Gendron, will probably need time to adjust in the minors so he’s not on the short-term horizon either.
On the back end, I like Oliver Bonk as an all-around dependable piece. He may not be flashy but he will be effective. But he has another OHL year left and probably some time in the minors after that; many teams don’t bring blueliners straight to the NHL from junior. As for Hunter McDonald, I feel like he’s more of an organizational filler prospect than someone they should be counting on for meaningful NHL contributions. He can certainly change that assessment with a good showing for a couple of years in the minors but at a minimum, he’s probably not a short-term option.
Philadelphia needs more high-end prospects and frankly, more depth before emerging from this rebuild. They’re off to a good start but that’s all it is, a start.
@iwtfwc: How do things play out for the @Avalanche this offseason?
– Landeskog? (I’m not confident)
– Nichushkin? (Seems they’re stuck unless he fails Stage 3)
– Drouin contact?
– Mittelstadt contract?
– Roster fill out?
– Chances of adding Nedeljkovic?
I’m not overly confident either that Gabriel Landeskog will be able to have any sort of successful extended comeback. However, I do think he’s going to give it an honest try and will start the season with the Avs. That will limit them this summer but if he shuts it down midseason, they’ll have plenty of in-year flexibility. I agree on Valeri Nichushkin, their hands are tied right now. He needs to get through the third stage of the program and then they can assess things from there. But they basically have to reserve space to activate him when he’s cleared.
If Jonathan Drouin comes back, it might be after free agency starts. I don’t think the Avalanche are willing to get to his number at this point, barring a cap-clearing move needing to be made first. If they were ready and able to make a deal, it’d be done already. But if Drouin’s market isn’t the strongest (and with how things went in Montreal, it might not be as robust as his camp hopes), I could see them circling back. I had him at three years at $4.375MM per season in our free agent predictions and they might be able to afford that.
I talked a lot about Casey Mittelstadt in Colorado’s offseason checklist the other day so I won’t get into that in much detail again here. I can’t see them affording a long-term deal so something in the four-to-six-year range around $5.5MM or so is where I see that falling. In terms of filling out their roster, that was also a topic in their checklist. It’s going to be a bunch of minimum-salary signings or close to it. Your guess is as good as mine as to which players will accept it a few hours into free agency.
I don’t see Colorado adding another goalie for the big club this summer (obviously not Nedeljkovic now). Justus Annunen did quite well in limited duty last year and has earned a longer look behind Alexandar Georgiev. Perhaps more importantly, he’s slotted in at less than $840K for the next two years so it’s his spot to lose. I do expect a signing for the Eagles, however.
RipperMagoo: Are the Devils better or worse after?
Sign Anthony Stolarz: three years, $8.25MM @ AAV $2.75MMl
Sign Nikita Zadorov: five years, $30MM @ AAV $6MM
Sign Dakota Joshua: three years, $9MM @ AAV $3MM
Trade Holtz and Bahl to SEA for Adam Larsson
Draft Cole Eiserman @ 10th
Before even looking at the options, the answer is yes. Are the Devils better…yes. If they did nothing, they’d be better than they were in 2023-24 as long as they don’t get slammed by injuries again. We know they’ve addressed the goalie situation so let’s skip that one but here are some thoughts on the others.
Zadorov: I don’t agree with him being a $6MM player but it feels like someone’s going to give it to him. Here’s the thing, how much do they want to spend on the back end? They’re at nearly $20MM now which is fine but Simon Nemec and Luke Hughes are a year away from getting a lot more expensive. If they get big second contracts and you add Zadorov, now we’re talking $30MM-plus and not by a little bit. That might be too much spending on the blueline. If they go for a defenseman this summer, I think it’ll be someone on a short-term contract and it might be by trade over free agency.
Larsson: I’m going out of order here but the two are related. At least this is a short-term contract which better fits their salary structure but giving up Alexander Holtz and let’s say another young roster player (since Kevin Bahl is gone now) for a one-year rental to fill a fourth defenseman role seems steep. And if you’re acquiring him with the idea of extending him, now you have three right-shot blueliners making at least $4.4MM for 2025-26 with Nemec still to sign. Again, this feels like too much money on the back end.
Joshua: I think they’d happily take him at that price tag but I have a hunch he’s getting a bit more than that and possibly another year. Think four years, $14MM in total.
Eiserman: With how his stock has slipped, I’m not sure he’d be their choice at 10 but it wouldn’t be a bad one. Especially if Holtz isn’t in the long-term plans, another scoring winger isn’t a bad thing to have.
New Jersey has enough money to try to take a big swing this summer. I think they’ll try to land a big fish up front and then add a veteran blueliner or two on short-term deals, giving them some shorter-term stability while leaving spots and salary slots for Nemec and Hughes to take on bigger roles a year later.
DevilShark: Which team that made the playoffs this year is in for the biggest hurt over the next 10 years when you look at a combo of current roster, prospect pool, and draft pick stock?
I’ll pick the Islanders here. In an effort to hang around the playoff picture every year, they haven’t made many moves to add to their pick and prospect cupboards and unfortunately for them, they haven’t had much to show for it aside from their run in 2021.
If you look at their current roster, they’re a mid-pack team at best on paper. They don’t have enough cap space to go after an impact player or two that could give them the boost they need. As it is, they might have to buy someone out or pay an asset to get out of an undesirable contract for the second year in a row. That’s not good.
Prospect-wise, they have one of the weakest systems in the NHL. That’s a by-product of moving first-round picks (their last one was back in 2019, used on Simon Holmstrom) and some of their better prospects for win-now options. Granted, moving some of those pieces helped them land Bo Horvat on a contract GM Lou Lamoriello wasn’t a fan of which isn’t nothing but sacrificing the future for the present will eventually catch up with teams. Meanwhile, they don’t have their own first three picks in the upcoming draft (although they do have some selections from other teams at least).
I don’t see a path for them to drastically improve, nor do I see one that sees them bottom out. The floor of their team is good but the ceiling isn’t much better. At some point, they’re going to have to take some steps back to move more steps forward but I don’t see Lamoriello pivoting to that approach anytime soon.
West Notes: Saros, Sharks, Roadrunners
The Predators are a franchise that rarely hands out trade protection when they sign contracts, even to some of their longer-term veterans. However, in an appearance on 102.5 The Game today, GM Barry Trotz acknowledged that if he’s able to agree to terms on a long-term extension with goaltender Juuse Saros, he would have to give out some sort of trade protection though it would have to have some sort of limit to it. Saros will enter the final year of his contract in July making him extension-eligible and Trotz hasn’t hidden his desire to lock up the netminder. However, Saros is well-positioned for a significant raise on his current $5MM price tag and could push past $8MM on a new agreement. If a deal is reached, Saros would become just the third Nashville player with trade protection, joining captain Roman Josi and winger Filip Forsberg.
Elsewhere in the West:
- During his pre-draft press conference today, Sharks GM Mike Grier told reporters including Sheng Peng of San Jose Hockey Now (Twitter link) that center Logan Couture is working out and hopes to get back to skating next month. The 35-year-old was limited to just six games this season due to osteitis pubis; he twice tried to come back from it but had to shut those efforts down due to setbacks. Couture has three years left on his contract which carries an $8MM cap charge.
- Still with the Sharks, they’re expected to be more aggressive in terms of adding some veterans this summer, already picking up Barclay Goodrow and Ty Dellandrea up front. Grier noted (per Peng) that while they could look to add free agents, their internal cap on how long they want to sign a player for would be four years. We’ve seen plenty of speculation that there may be teams willing to offer a higher AAV in exchange for a shorter-term deal; San Jose would be a potentially viable candidate to offer a contract or two like that.
- Following the news that the land auction the Coyotes are hoping to win to get an NHL team back was canceled due to a lack of a proper zoning permit, the six games that AHL Tucson was set to play at Mullet Arena have now been moved back to Tucson, per a team announcement. The Roadrunners will serve as Utah’s primary affiliate next season.
Sharks Expected To Non-Tender Calen Addison
With the deadline for qualifying offers now being less than a week away, teams will soon be making their final decisions on who to keep and who to let go. The Sharks appear to be ahead of the game on that front as GM Mike Grier told reporters today including Eric Stephens of The Athletic (Twitter link) that they’re engaging in contract discussions with RFA wingers Filip Zadina and Luke Kunin. However, he also revealed that the Sharks will be moving on from defenseman Calen Addison, meaning he’s likely to be non-tendered on Sunday.
San Jose acquired the 24-year-old from Minnesota in an early-season trade that saw them part with winger Adam Raska and a fifth-round pick. With Addison on the outside looking in at a regular lineup spot with the Wild and the fact he was coming off a 29-point season, the move made a lot of sense for the Sharks to potentially bring in someone who could be a longer-term fit.
However, things didn’t go particularly well for Addison this season. He managed just one goal and 11 assists in 60 games with his new team while he struggled considerably in the defensive end. It wouldn’t be surprising to see San Jose try to add some veterans on the back end to help try to stabilize things somewhat after a season to forget which would help push Addison out, especially being arbitration-eligible where his 2022-23 performance could have landed him a sizable raise on the $825K he made this season.
It’s worth noting that both Zadina and Kunin are also arbitration-eligible next month. Zadina’s checks in at $1.1MM so as long as his asking price isn’t too exorbitant, there’s a good chance he’ll be tendered. However, Kunin, who had just 18 points in 77 games, is owed a $3MM qualifier so if talks don’t go well in the coming days, it’s possible that he could be let go if a new deal isn’t reached by Sunday.
Senators Acquire Linus Ullmark
With Jeremy Swayman set to land what’s expected to be a significant contract as a restricted free agent this summer, it has been widely expected that the Bruins would be moving out Linus Ullmark. That move has now happened as Ullmark has been moved to Ottawa in exchange for the 25th pick in this week’s draft, goaltender Joonas Korpisalo, and forward Mark Kastelic. Both sides have announced the swap which also sees the Senators retaining 25% of Korpisalo’s contract.
Ullmark has spent the last three seasons with Boston after signing a four-year, $20MM contract with them in free agency back in 2021. It’s fair to say that the move worked out quite well for both sides.
After struggling with inconsistency throughout his time in Buffalo, the 30-year-old has become one of the top netminders in the NHL. In 2022-23, he played in a platoon with Swayman but was nothing short of dominant, winning 40 of 48 starts while posting a league-best 1.89 GAA and a .938 SV%. That helped him earn his first career Vezina Trophy as the NHL’s Goalie of the Year.
Not surprisingly, those numbers dropped this season although coming off the year he had, that was to be expected. Even so, Ullmark was still above average, putting up a 2.57 GAA with a .915 SV% in 39 starts. However, he was limited to just two postseason appearances (one start) with Swayman getting the bulk of the workload.
With Swayman set to command a long-term deal and having arbitration eligibility for the second year in a row, it wouldn’t have been feasible for Boston to keep both netminders in the fold. Doing so would have made them one of the highest-spending teams on goaltenders which would have cut into their flexibility to fill some other needs this summer.
Meanwhile, from Ottawa’s standpoint, a move to shore things up between the pipes has been an annual occurrence recently with middling results at best. Last summer, Korpisalo was brought in on a five-year, $20MM contract following a strong bounce-back year with Columbus and Los Angeles. However, instead of turning things around in goal, he struggled considerably, posting a 3.27 GAA and a career-worst .890 SV%. Boston will assume a $3MM cap charge on Korpisalo for the next four years while Ottawa will carry $1MM of dead cap charges for that time. They’ll be hoping that in a better-structured system, he could put up similar numbers to the ones he put up with the Kings down the stretch in 2023, another defensive-oriented team.
Unfortunately for Ottawa, Anton Forsberg didn’t fare much better; while his GAA was a little better at a still-below-average 3.21, his save percentage also checked in at .890. Meanwhile, their potential goalie of the future Mads Sogaard also struggled, coming up with a 4.05 GAA and a .859 SV% in his six NHL appearances. Knowing that, many expected that they would be making another attempt to upgrade in goal this summer; Ullmark certainly represents one. The Sens were believed to be interested in acquiring Ullmark during the season although that never came to fruition with Ottawa believed to be on Ullmark’s partial no-trade list. Evidently, he had a change of heart to help facilitate the move.
Once July 1st comes around, Ullmark will become extension-eligible as he’ll officially be in the final year of his contract. No informal agreement is in place yet although Postmedia’s Bruce Garrioch reports (Twitter link) that the two sides are working on getting an extension in place. If that happens, he’d become their long-term starter with Sogaard likely getting the full-time promotion to the NHL to serve as his backup starting in 2025-26 after Forsberg’s contract comes to an end.
Meanwhile, Boston is also adding a rugged fourth liner in Kastelic. The 25-year-old played in 63 games with the Sens this season, collecting five goals, five assists, 63 penalty minutes, and 126 hits while averaging a little less than eight minutes a night. For his NHL career, Kastelic has 25 points and 331 hits in 144 games with Ottawa. He’s signed through the upcoming season at a $835K cap charge and will be a restricted free agent with arbitration rights at that time so he could be in their plans for a couple of years at least. The Bruins have several pending unrestricted free agents up front so Kastelic will be taking the place of one of those players.
Boston will also get to do something they haven’t been able to do lately and that’s draft in the first round. Assuming they hold onto the pick, this will be the first time that they picked on the opening day of the draft since 2021 when they took Fabian Lysell 21st overall. Interestingly enough, that pick has been well-traveled. It’s Boston’s own selection but they originally moved it for Tyler Bertuzzi at the 2023 trade deadline. Detroit then sent it to Ottawa as part of the Alex DeBrincat trade last offseason and now it has returned to the Bruins.
The move winds up being relatively cap-neutral for both sides. In the end, Boston saves $1.165MM with the swap, bringing their cap space for this coming summer to just under $21.6MM, per CapFriendly. Meanwhile, the Sens are now down to $11.3MM in room, per CapFriendly. We’ll find out in the coming days how the teams plan to spend the bulk of those funds.
Steve Conroy of the Boston Herald was the first to report that Ullmark was heading to Ottawa.
Photos courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Utah Re-Signs Ben McCartney
Over the past few weeks, Utah has been busy re-signing several pending free agents. They continued that on Monday as the team announced that they’ve inked winger Ben McCartney to a one-year, two-way deal. While financial terms were not disclosed, CapFriendly reports (Twitter link) that the contract pays $775K in the NHL and $100K in the minors, meaning he took less than his qualifying offer to secure a higher guaranteed AHL portion.
The 22-year-old finished up his entry-level contract this season, playing exclusively in the minors with Tucson although he did have a brief early-season recall to Arizona. McCartney played in 46 games with the Roadrunners in 2023-24, picking up six goals and a dozen assists.
In his rookie year, McCartney had 35 points in 57 games in the minors, earning him a two-game stint with the Coyotes. However, even if you add in his output from 2022-23, he has just 37 AHL points since then which made him a possible non-tender candidate if GM Bill Armstrong decided he wanted to give someone else a shot. Instead, McCartney will get another chance to prove his worth, assuming he clears waivers in the fall to return to the Roadrunners (who remain Utah’s affiliate for next season).
Offseason Checklist: Dallas Stars
The offseason has arrived for all but the two teams who are still taking part in the playoffs. For the rest, it’s time to examine what they will need to accomplish over the coming months. Next up is a look at the Stars.
A quiet 2023 offseason outside of the addition of Matt Duchene yielded the same results for the Stars – a Western Conference Final elimination. Improvement from their budding stars like Wyatt Johnston and a true breakout season on the blue line from Thomas Harley helped Dallas reach 113 points in the regular season, their second-most in franchise history. They’re already facing one significant loss heading into next season, though, with veteran fixture Joe Pavelski expected to retire. Accordingly, it’s likely another summer of minor surgery for general manager Jim Nill, coming off his second Jim Gregory GM of the Year Award.
Fill A Top-Six Forward Spot
At first glance, this doesn’t seem like a pressing team for a Stars offense that finished third in the NHL last season. But Pavelski and Duchene, who’s a pending UFA, were big parts of that, contributing 52 goals and 132 points between the two of them. They can’t lose both and expect to still be the team they were this season. While the production of one could be replaced by continued improvement from Johnston or strong rookie campaigns from Mavrik Bourque and Logan Stankoven, asking them to offset the loss of both is a tough ask to put on the young future of your franchise.
There’s an easy way to check this box – re-up Duchene, who was more than effective for his $3MM cap hit. He’ll earn a slight raise on it this offseason, but there’s mutual interest in an extension, and he’s expressed a willingness to take a discount on his market value to stay in Dallas. It certainly helps that he’s still receiving $1.56MM per year from the Predators, who bought out the final three seasons of his prior contract last summer, through 2028-29.
In case they can’t keep Duchene from going to market, though, they’ll need to find somebody who can slot into a top-six spot on the right wing, preferably for under $5MM a season against the cap. Even at 32, Tyler Seguin still has enough juice in the tank to comfortably handle a top-six role, especially if the center responsibilities are being dedicated to Johnston and Roope Hintz. They will need an upgrade on someone like Evgenii Dadonov, though, who currently projects as their second-line RW but had only 23 points in 51 games this year. If they do need to hit the free agent market for a Duchene replacement, someone like Anthony Duclair, Anthony Mantha or Vladimir Tarasenko could be an appropriately priced option.
Start Oettinger Extension Talks
Things have been a tad up-and-down for Jake Oettinger since he took over the Dallas crease from Anton Khudobin in 2021, but a good playoff showing has him back to being a largely consensus top-ten netminder in the league. Even at his worst, he’s a slightly above-average goalie, evidenced by his career-low .905 SV% this season. Injuries were a bit of a concern, limiting him to 53 starts, but at his peak, he’s a game-altering talent.
He’s shown it multiple times, whether it be his .919 SV% and 37-11-11 record in 2022-23 that earned him fifth place in Vezina Trophy voting or his .954 SV% in a seven-game loss to the Flames in the first round in 2022 that has gone down as one of the better netminding performances in a series loss in league history. He’s worth shelling out for among a current crop of goalies that, aside from the very few elite, tend to have real stinker seasons at least every once in a while.
Now, as he enters the final season of a respectable three-year, $4MM AAV bridge deal, Nill needs to decide how far he’s willing to go on a long-term deal for his star netminder. If he gets it done early this summer – a realistic scenario given his otherwise light free-agent workload – it could come in a tad north of $8MM annually on a long-year deal. That’s a lower percentage of the cap than recent long-term deals for more highly-regarded netminders like Connor Hellebuyck and Ilya Sorokin and a good bit below what it’s expected to take for the Rangers to retain Igor Shesterkin.
New Deal For Harley
While the Stars have only a few impact UFAs to deal with, the list is even smaller for impact RFAs. Only two saw consistent playing time in the playoffs, and only one was deployed in high-usage situations – Thomas Harley.
The 22-year-old isn’t eligible for arbitration but is due a significant raise coming off his entry-level contract. Drafted 18th overall in 2019, Harley dethroned Ryan Suter for top-pairing duties alongside Miro Heiskanen early in the season and never looked back. He finished the campaign with 15 goals and 47 points in 79 games, finishing second among Dallas defenders in average time on ice with 21:01. His possession game with Heiskanen was strong, controlling 55.6% of shot attempts when on the ice at even strength.
He’s a core piece of their team and could very well serve as Heiskanen’s partner for the next decade if their results together this season are any indication. With the Stars in a bit of a cap crunch, though, expect them to opt for a bridge deal while they load up in a continued effort to make their second Stanley Cup Final appearance of the decade. Evolving Hockey pegs his new contract at a two-year term with an AAV close to $4MM, a safe bet for positive value considering his showing this year.
Add RD Depth
The Stars still have Esa Lindell and Suter signed next season behind Harley, so their left side is likely already locked in. But behind Heiskanen, who’s a lefty playing the right side anyway, there’s a lot of uncertainty.
Like Duchene, Nill is expected to make a big push to keep trade deadline acquisition Chris Tanev from heading to market next week. He was stellar in a second-pairing shutdown role alongside Lindell, controlling play well and posting two assists and a +7 rating in 19 playoff games. Even if he comes back, though, there’s a tossup behind him.
Jani Hakanpää is a cheap candidate to re-sign, but he provides much of the same services as Tanev and would likely be ruled expendable if the latter is extended. Nils Lundkvist had 13 points in 59 regular-season games but struggled early in postseason action and was a frequent healthy scratch in the later rounds. It’s fair to assume he won’t be relied upon for much of anything by head coach Peter DeBoer if he’s qualified and brought back next season. Lian Bichsel, while a strong prospect who could challenge for a roster spot out of camp, is also a lefty. Asking him to play his off side, even alongside a veteran like Suter, is an irresponsible ask.
That makes it clear that, even outside of Tanev, adding a right-shot defender will be a priority for Nill when the UFA market opens on July 1.
Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.
Kings Sign Samuel Fagemo To One-Year Extension
4:50 p.m.: It’s a two-way deal for Fagemo, per PuckPedia. It carries an AHL salary of $375K with a $425K guarantee.
3:07 p.m.: The Kings have signed winger Samuel Fagemo to a one-year extension worth $775K, per a team release.
Fagemo, 24, was a second-round pick of Los Angeles in 2019 but is already on his second stint with the team. After failing to land a spot on their opening night roster last fall, he was waived and subsequently claimed by the Predators.
His stint in Nashville was nothing to write home about, recording one goal in four games while playing fourth-line minutes. He was waived again by the Preds in November, upon which he was picked up again by the Kings. Since L.A. was the only team to submit a claim, he was assigned directly to the AHL’s Ontario Reign.
Fagemo only saw brief call-up action the rest of the way with the Kings, but he was one of the best players in the AHL this season with the Reign. The Swedish sniper lit the lamp 43 times in just 50 games, finishing with 62 points and a +10 rating. He finished tied for 10th in the league in points outright, and his 1.24 points per game were the most among skaters with at least 20 appearances. However, he didn’t manage to get on the scoresheet in four games with Los Angeles after being re-acquired.
However, after his showing with the Reign, the risk of losing him on waivers again in October is sky-high. With Viktor Arvidsson and Trevor Lewis heading for free agency next month and Pierre-Luc Dubois out of the picture after being traded to the Capitals, there’s more than enough opportunity for Fagemo to snag a spot out of camp, potentially on a scoring-oriented third line.
Fagemo would have had arbitration rights had he reached restricted free agency next week. He’ll have them again upon his extension’s expiry.
Bruins Sign Brandon Bussi To Two-Way Extension
The Bruins announced Monday that they’ve signed depth netminder Brandon Bussi to a one-year, two-way deal covering next season. It carries a cap hit of $775K salary, and he’ll earn $225K in the minors with a $275K guarantee, per PuckPedia.
Bussi, 25, has served as their third-string netminder for the past two seasons. He’s been recalled under emergency conditions a handful of times but has yet to make his NHL debut.
An undrafted free agent signing out of Western Michigan University in 2022, the 6’4″ Bussi has provided good value for the Bruins’ AHL affiliate in Providence. He was electric last season and earned AHL All-Rookie Team honors with a sparkling 22-5-4 record, .924 SV% and 2.40 GAA in 32 games, although he regressed somewhat to a .913 SV% and 2.67 GAA in 41 appearances this year. It was still a solid showing for the New York native, who’s aggressively knocking on the door for NHL time.
For now, though, he’s expected to remain in the starter’s crease for the P-Bruins to open next season. Even if the Bruins move on from Linus Ullmark via trade, they’ll likely replace his spot with a goalie coming back the other way or via a free-agent signing. A two-way extension for Bussi doesn’t exude confidence that they envision him as the backup to Jeremy Swayman entering 2024-25.
One complicating factor is that, for the first time, Bussi will require waivers to head to Providence if he doesn’t crack the NHL roster out of training camp. After a pair of strong seasons with the P-Bruins, there’s a decent chance he’d be claimed.
Devils Re-Sign Nick DeSimone To One-Year Deal
The Devils have re-signed defenseman Nick DeSimone to a one-year, one-way contract, per a team announcement Monday. It’s worth the league minimum salary of $775K.
DeSimone, 29, was headed for the UFA market next week. Instead, he’ll stay in New Jersey, which claimed him off waivers from the Flames in late January. This is the first one-way contract of his career.
Given his small role with the Devils, it was doubtful if general manager Tom Fitzgerald would offer him an extension, especially a one-way commitment. He was scratched more than he played, only skating in 11 of New Jersey’s 37 contests after his acquisition. DeSimone was serviceable when iced, though, posting a goal and an assist while controlling 48.4% of shot attempts when on the ice at even strength. He averaged 16:29 per game in a Devils uniform.
The minor-league veteran has only 38 NHL games to his name, 34 of which came this season. Across his stints with Calgary and New Jersey over the past two years, he’s totaled two goals and five assists without being a defensive liability in bottom-pairing minutes. He’s long been a strong puck-moving option in the AHL, totaling 38 goals and 138 assists for 176 points in 341 games in the Flames, Golden Knights and Sharks organizations.
In fact, most of his time under NHL contract has been spent with San Jose, where he signed as an undrafted free agent out of Union College in 2017. However, he never saw NHL ice during his four years collecting a paycheck from them.
A one-way deal indicates DeSimone has an inside track to start next season as the Devils’ seventh defenseman, although he’ll likely face competition for the role from the younger Santeri Hatakka. Their top six on defense is mostly solidified, with Dougie Hamilton, Luke Hughes, John Marino, Simon Nemec and Jonas Siegenthaler all guaranteed spots, plus a UFA signing to replace Kevin Bahl, who was traded to the Flames in last week’s Jacob Markström deal.
With DeSimone in the NHL, the Devils are down to $15.27MM in projected cap space with a roster size of 16, per CapFriendly. He’ll be a UFA upon expiry.
Atlantic Notes: Heinen, Okposo, Husso
Talks have begun in Boston on an extension for pending UFA forward Danton Heinen, who 98.5 The Sports Hub’s Ty Anderson writes prefers to stay with the Bruins.
It’s been quite a ride over the past 12 months for the 28-year-old, whose second stint in Boston appears to have revitalized his career. After failing to land a contract on the open market last summer, he settled for a professional tryout agreement with the Bruins that turned into a league-minimum agreement in late October after general manager Don Sweeney opened up the required cap space. He responded with 36 points in 74 games, his highest offensive output since his 47-point rookie campaign with Boston back in 2017-18.
Heinen often earned looks higher up in the lineup and logged most of his ice time this season on a line with David Pastrňák and Pavel Zacha. He’ll see his name on our Top 50 Unrestricted Free Agents list coming out later this week, and whether it’s in Boston or elsewhere, he’ll likely earn a significant raise on his expiring $775K cap hit.
Some other rumblings from the Atlantic Division:
- Kyle Okposo will draw back into the lineup for the Panthers for tonight’s (literally) winner-take-all Cup Final game against the Oilers, head coach Paul Maurice said (via the team’s Jameson Olive). Okposo was scratched in their Game 6 loss after a tough Game 5 showing, but his replacement, Nick Cousins, didn’t have much of an impact in his first appearance since Game 3 of the Eastern Conference Final. Acquired from the Sabres before the trade deadline, the 36-year-old Okposo has two assists in 16 playoff games for the Cats while averaging 8:36 per game. If Florida avoids making history by blowing a 3-0 series lead in the Final tonight, they’ll incur a $500K cap overage penalty next season without the space to accommodate Okposo’s performance bonus for winning the Cup, CapFriendly points out.
- Continuing his look at potential trade candidates this summer with uncomfortably high cap hits, The Athletic’s Harman Dayal mentions Red Wings netminder Ville Husso as someone to watch. The 6’3″ Finn missed more than half of the season with lower-body injuries and wasn’t particularly good when in the lineup, posting a career-worst .892 SV% and 3.55 GAA in 19 appearances. He hasn’t performed up to expectations overall since inking a three-year, $4.75MM AAV deal with Detroit in 2022, coming off a campaign with the Blues that earned him seventh place in Vezina voting. Husso has a 10-team no-trade list.