Carter Yakemchuk Signs Entry-Level Deal With Senators
The Senators have signed top 2024 draft choice Carter Yakemchuk to his three-year entry-level contract, the team announced today. Financial terms were not disclosed.
Yakemchuk, 18, was the second defenseman taken in the class, going to Ottawa at No. 7 after the Blackhawks selected Artyom Levshunov second overall. Given his early birthday (Sep. 29), Yakemchuk has already accumulated three seasons of junior hockey with the Western Hockey League’s Calgary Hitmen. Last season, he was named to the WHL’s Central Division First All-Star Team and led all defensemen in goals with 30. He added 41 assists for 71 points in 66 games, adding a whopping 120 PIMs and a -6 rating.
Seventh overall was a tad earlier than most expected the 6’3″, 203-lb right-shot defender to go. He checked in at No. 13 in TSN’s Bob McKenzie’s season-end polling of NHL scouts and was the sixth defenseman in his composite rankings. He went ahead of Zeev Buium (Wild, No. 12), Sam Dickinson (Sharks, No. 11), Zayne Parekh (Flames, No. 9), and Anton Silayev (Devils, No. 10), all of whom were consensus top-10 picks heading into draft day.
Yakemchuk will be a name to watch in training camp, but it’s likely that the Sens return him to the Hitmen for his final season of junior hockey. Doing so would slide the beginning of his ELC to 2025-26. Since he’s a 2005-born player, Yakemchuk will be eligible for a full-time AHL assignment the season after, whereas most Canadian Hockey League players have to return to their junior team for two seasons following their draft-eligible campaign. Regardless, he’ll be an RFA upon expiry.
West Notes: Desharnais, Rossi, Rehkopf
The Canucks may slot in UFA signing Vincent Desharnais on their top defense pairing alongside Quinn Hughes in spot duty next season, opines Thomas Drance of The Athletic.
Doing so would allow Filip Hronek, who spent all of last season stapled to Hughes and is fresh off signing an eight-year, $58MM deal, to drive his own pairing against easier competition. That’s something head coach Rick Tocchet said he’d consider doing, telling Drance that Hronek can “tend to defer too much” at times when playing with Hughes and that he’d “like to see him be more forceful with his decisions.”
It would be a big jump for Desharnais, though. The 28-year-old only established himself as a full-time NHLer last year with the Oilers. He was a bottom-pairing presence for Edmonton, averaging 15:44 per game through 78 contests. He did post 11 points and a +3 rating with average possession metrics, but playing alongside Hughes with any consistency would be a tough task for a player who’s seen most of his professional career unfold in the AHL to date. Desharnais inked a two-year, $4MM contract with Vancouver when free agency opened on July 1.
There’s more out of the Western Conference:
- Austria will be without perhaps its best player in this summer’s qualifying tournament for the 2026 Winter Olympics. Wild forward Marco Rossi is skipping the event to begin training in Minnesota later this month, notes Michael Russo of The Athletic. Rossi, 22, is coming off a career-high 21 goals and 40 points last season while playing in all 82 games and could open the season as the Wild’s first-line center alongside Kirill Kaprizov. The 2020 ninth-overall pick had one assist in three games during the 2022 qualifiers with Austria failing to earn one of the three available spots. This year, they’ll be competing for one of the open spots in a round-robin tournament with Hungary, Kazakhstan and Slovakia.
- Kraken prospect Carson Rehkopf has been traded in the Ontario Hockey League, heading from the Kitchener Rangers to the Brampton Steelheads, sources tell Ryan Kennedy of The Hockey News. Rehkopf, 19, has spent the last three seasons in Kitchener, where the 6’2″ forward led the team in scoring last season with 95 points (52 goals, 43 assists) in 60 games. The 2023 second-round pick will be returned to Brampton out of training camp this fall, but a strong post-draft season puts him in line to compete for a roster spot in Seattle in next year’s training camp.
Submit Your Questions For A Salary Cap/Transactions FAQ
Aug. 6: We’re taking more questions! The first installment of these FAQs was published Monday, which you can read here.
Have any burning questions about the NHL’s CBA, salary cap, or any sort of transaction? Ask away.
Our friends over at Hoops Rumors have a spectacular “Glossary” series that dives into all the nitty-gritty terms, rules and regulations surrounding CBA provisions that govern the NBA’s transactions and salary cap. We at PHR would like to do the same for hockey, offering explanations and clearing up confusion on some perhaps oft-misunderstood or complex/mysterious topics.
If you have queries about anything that falls under that umbrella, whether it be roster limits, contract clauses or LTIR, toss them in the comment section or contact us directly. PHR’s Josh Erickson will go through and answer as many as possible in a series of mailbag-style pieces, which will be accessible at any time on the right sidebar under “Pro Hockey Rumors Features.”
Snapshots: Draisaitl, Zegras, Lee, Preseason Schedule
Leon Draisaitl‘s recent eligibility to sign a contract extension will be one of the bigger storylines late in the offseason, but it doesn’t appear there’s much of anything new to report since Stan Bowman took over the reins as general manager a couple of weeks ago, the executive said to NHL.com’s Derek Van Diest.
“I had a good conversation (with Draisaitl’s agent Mike Liut) and we’re starting things off and the timing on that will be what it will be,” Bowman said. “I don’t have an update of where it’s going to be or the timing on that, but there is nothing negative to report, certainly.”
The initial contact between Bowman and Draisaitl’s camp reignites extension talks that began back in June with acting GM Jeff Jackson. Draisaitl’s European-based agent, Jiri Poner, told a German news outlet early last month that the ball was in Edmonton’s court to make a competitive offer. Things seem on a slow but positive track for the German superstar, who’s coming off a 41-goal, 106-point campaign in 2023-24.
Here’s more from around the league:
- Ducks forward Trevor Zegras has continued to draw trade interest from around the league this summer, and some speculated a return to his New York home could be in the cards. That doesn’t appear to be the case, though, as Arthur Staple of The Athletic said in a recent mailbag that he doesn’t “think the Rangers have ever been interested in Zegras, much as the local kid would love to be a Ranger.”
- There have been questions about Islanders captain Anders Lee‘s future with the club after a trying campaign that saw him limited to 20 goals and 37 points in 81 games, his lowest offensive output in a healthy season since 2015-16. But it appears the 34-year-old is here to stay for the final two years of his contract at a $7MM cap hit, GM Lou Lamoriello told Staple. “You’re talking about a consummate pro: high integrity, high character, team first,” Lamoriello said. “I’d say he was one of our better players in the playoffs. That should answer any questions you might have — how he responded to whatever role he was asked to play.”
- We’re just 46 days away from NHL hockey returning to laptops, radios and TVs. The league announced its complete composite preseason schedule today, which will kick off on Sep. 21 with a trio of games involving the Penguins and Sabres, the Blues and Stars, and the Wild and Jets. The Utah Hockey Club will take the ice for the first time in preseason action the following day, hosting the Blues for a neutral site game in Des Moines, Iowa. The preseason will run for two weeks, drawing to a close on Oct. 5.
International Notes: Schneider, Richards, Melnick
An AHL fixture is heading a bit off the beaten path this season. After 13 minor-league seasons and six NHL games, forward Cole Schneider has signed a two-year deal with Norway’s Storhamar, the team announced yesterday.
Schneider, 33, is coming off a tough campaign. The Williamsville, New York native signed on with the independent Chicago Wolves last season and was expected to be one of their top scorers, but he faltered with only 24 points (13 goals, 11 assists) in 56 games. In the two seasons prior, Schneider had served as the captain of the Predators’ affiliate in Milwaukee and put up seasons of 60 and 51 points.
Since making his AHL debut all the way back in 2012, Schneider has totaled 247 goals, 327 assists and 574 points in 776 career games. That puts him inside the top 50 in league history in both goals and appearances. But his NHL call-ups were few and far between, only appearing in a half-dozen contests with the Sabres across the 2015-16 and 2016-17 seasons, recording one assist and a +2 rating.
Schneider heads to a Storhamar team that went 33-3-9 last season and won the Norwegian Eliteserien championship, putting them in the continent-wide Champions Hockey League for 2024-25. He’s a major reinforcement for Storhamar’s first appearance in the continental cup since 2018-19. He joins former Avalanche, Blackhawks and Canadiens winger Andreas Martinsen as Storhamar’s only players with NHL experience under their belt.
More recent international signings:
- Free agent center Justin Richards is heading overseas for the first time, signing a one-year deal with Germany’s Dusseldorfer EG. The 26-year-old Orlando native spent all of last season in the minors while on a two-way deal with the Sabres and became a Group VI UFA at the end of the year. The son of former Blue Jackets head coach Todd Richards took a step back with AHL Rochester after a career-best campaign with Cleveland the year prior, only contributing 16 points (seven goals, nine assists) in 58 games with a -13 rating. Richards has two assists in three career NHL games with the Blue Jackets and Rangers across the 2020-21 and 2022-23 campaigns.
- After six years of solid play in the AHL, center Josh Melnick signed a one-year deal with Karpat of the Finnish Liiga today, per a team release. Melnick, 29, had spent the last two seasons with the Chicago Wolves and four years before that in the Stars’ system with Texas. He was signed to an NHL contract by Dallas coming out of Miami Ohio in 2019 but never got a call-up. The 5’10”, 181-lb pivot has 129 points in 300 career AHL games.
Capitals Loan Leon Muggli To EV Zug
The Capitals have officially loaned 2024 second-round pick Leon Muggli back to Switzerland’s EV Zug for 2024-25, the team announced today. The National League club said last month that they were in discussions to take the 18-year-old defenseman back on loan for this season after he signed his entry-level contract with Washington.
It will be Muggli’s second season with the big club after spending his entire development process in the Zug system, suiting up for their U-15, U-17 and U-20 teams since 2019. Last year, his first professional season, he became a depth fixture on the Zug blue line with 12 points (3 G, 9 A) and a +13 rating in 42 games.
The smooth-skating two-way defender was Washington’s third choice of the 2024 draft class, following winger Terik Parascak at No. 17 and diminutive defenseman Cole Hutson at No. 43. Muggli came off the board at No. 52, a pick the Caps acquired from the Golden Knights in last season’s Anthony Mantha trade.
With the loan, Muggli’s entry-level contract will slide to next season as expected since he won’t see any NHL action. If he plays fewer than 10 NHL games in 2025-26, the deal could slide again to the 2026-27 campaign, meaning he won’t be an RFA for the first time until 2028-29. That likely scenario will result in his cap hit reducing from its initial $940.8K to $875.8K due to signing bonuses being paid out in the 2024-25 and 2025-26 campaigns (contract details via PuckPedia).
Muggli returns to a Zug squad that won back-to-back NL titles in 2021 and 2022 but has been eliminated in the semifinals in two straight years. Their roster is dotted with a few former NHLers, including Gabriel Carlsson, Gregory Hofmann, and Fredrik Olofsson.
PHR Chatter: The Blue Jackets’ Offseason
The Blue Jackets were one of the most active teams last summer, acquiring Ivan Provorov and Damon Severson to bolster their blue line and drafting Adam Fantilli third overall after a nightmarish 2022-23 season. They also tabbed Mike Babcock to be their next head coach, kicking off months of off-ice instability that contributed to Columbus staying well below the playoff demarcation line with a 66-point campaign in 2023-24.
Before they could improve on the ice, the Blue Jackets had to name the pillars that will lead the team out of its rebuild. They’ve done so now, naming Don Waddell to take over as general manager after Jarmo Kekalainen was canned in February and bringing in Dean Evason to succeed Pascal Vincent as head coach, the latter of whom struggled in the post after unexpectedly taking over for Babcock before the season began.
But unlike last summer, the Jackets were mostly silent on both the trade and UFA markets aside from one name. That’s Sean Monahan, who they signed to a five-year, $27.5MM deal with one goal in mind – reignite Johnny Gaudreau. The two were an elite duo together during their days with the Flames, and in their younger years, helped each other to career-best seasons at the time in 2018-19.
Gaudreau has struggled in Columbus since signing a seven-year, $68.25MM contract in free agency in 2022, producing below expectations with 33 goals and 101 assists for 134 points in 161 games. He was over a point per game in his career before signing with the Jackets. Monahan, meanwhile, is on the upswing after seemingly beating the injury bug. His 26 goals and 59 points split between the Canadiens and Jets last season were his most since his career-high 34 goals and 82 points centering Gaudreau in Calgary five years ago.
Of course, there’s still one major box Waddell still needs to check off. A Patrik Laine trade is more inevitable than ever after the winger exited the NHL/NHLPA Player Assistance Program late last month. But Waddell told Brian Hedger of the Columbus Dispatch last week that talks are moving at a snail’s pace, no doubt influenced by Laine’s rich $8.7MM cap hit through the next two seasons. The sniper was a point-per-game player in Columbus as recently as three years ago, but injuries and his stay in the assistance program limited him to just 18 appearances last season.
To round out their roster, Columbus also brought in an old friend in veteran defenseman Jack Johnson to help stabilize their bottom pair. He played in parts of seven seasons with the Jackets, where he was a top-pairing fixture from 2012 to 2018. His 16 points and +15 rating with the Avalanche last season were both his best single-season totals since departing Columbus.
They’ll also likely get the first taste of Denton Mateychuk in the NHL. The 2022 12th-overall pick will be turning pro in the fall after a banner 2023-24 campaign that saw him win a Western Hockey League championship with the Moose Jaw Warriors, leading the playoffs with 19 assists in 20 games en route to being named the postseason MVP. His 75 points (17 G, 58 A) in 52 regular-season games with a +35 rating also earned him the Bill Hunter Trophy for the league’s top defenseman.
But aside from Evason and Monahan, the Jackets look nearly identical to how they finished last season, at least in terms of pieces projected to have a significant impact. Nine of their 10 leading scorers from last season are still rostered, save for Alexandre Texier. He was traded to the Blues in June.
No one is expecting the Blue Jackets to be playoff contenders this year, but it will be an important culture-setting season for the team as they attempt to return to relevancy. Part of that will be a significant bump in the standings, but even a 15-20 point increase from last year wouldn’t bring them within spitting distance of a wild card spot. Still, it would be an important step forward for the Blue Jackets’ young core as they begin to graduate from prospects to full-fledged NHLers.
Tell us what you think. Have the Jackets done enough to at least take a significant step forward in 2024-25? Did they make the right hires to address their coaching and GM vacancies? Head to the comments and share your thoughts on the summer in Columbus.
Rockford IceHogs Hire Josh MacNevin As Assistant Coach
The Chicago Blackhawks organization is ready to put a solid developmental staff around their young prospects as their AHL affiliate, the Rockford IceHogs, announced the hire of Josh MacNevin as an assistant coach. It will be MacNevin’s coaching debut in professional hockey as he’s spent the last decade coaching in the Western Hockey League.
As a player, MacNevin had a halfway productive career with the Providence College Friars in the NCAA and was ultimately drafted by the New Jersey Devils in the fourth round of the 1996 NHL Draft. He would never play in the NHL as MacNevin put together most of his professional career overseas in Finland, Italy, and Sweden. He ended his pro career after the 2012-13 season and would wait only one year before joining the WHL’s Lethbridge Hurricanes as an assistant coach.
Primarily serving as a defensive coach with Lethbridge, the only notable NHL defenseman developed by MacNevin was Calen Addison who played for the Hurricanes from 2015-19. Addison’s playmaking ability from the blue line was certainly enhanced under MacNevin’s tutelage as he racked up 174 assists and 215 points in 252 games in Lethbridge. The team never made it farther than the Eastern Conference Final during MacNevin’s tenure and he left the team for the Kelowna Rockets in 2022.
Caden Price served as MacNevin’s primary resource on the blue line in Kelowna and was recently drafted 84th overall by the Seattle Kraken in the 2023 NHL Draft. Additionally, MacNevin briefly coached Colton Dach in his first year with the organization who was drafted by the Blackhawks in 2021 and should suit up for the IceHogs again next year.
Chicago has several notable defensive prospects that could appear in AHL Rockford this year including Artyom Levshunov, Ethan Del Mastro, and Wyatt Kaiser. As the IceHogs’ new primary defensive coach, MacNevin will have a hand in each player’s overall development and will be instrumental in the Blackhawks’ future success on the back end.
Does Patrik Laine Make Sense For The Minnesota Wild?
Joe Smith and Michael Russo wrote in The Athletic (subscription article) earlier today that not only does disgruntled winger Patrik Laine make sense for the Minnesota Wild, but the team kicked the tires on him at the 2024 NHL Draft. Quite obviously, the major hurdle in bringing Laine to the ‘State of Hockey’ is his $8.7MM salary for the next two years with the Wild organization owning approximately $750k in cap space according to PuckPedia.
To make a trade work with the Columbus Blue Jackets, the general manager of the Wild, Bill Guerin would have to convince Don Waddell to eat some of Laine’s salary. Waddell has been adamant up to this point that he knows he will have to eat some of Laine’s salary for the next two years to facilitate a deal but is not interested in eating the full 50%.
Assuming that Guerin can convince Columbus to eat 50% of Laine’s contract for the next two years, Smith and Russo assert that forward Frederick Gaudreau and his $2.1MM salary for the next four years will almost certainly head the other way. Gaudreau performed very well under Blue Jackets’ head coach Dean Evason during his time with Milwaukee Admirals of the AHL and between 2021-23 with Minnesota. The Wild wouldn’t miss much in their lineup if Gaudreau were sent the other way especially with the team bringing in Yakov Trenin on a four-year pact earlier this summer.
This is when a potential deal gets tricky for the Wild. The team could deal out forward Marcus Johansson and defenseman Jon Merrill to make the money work but Minnesota’s depth may not be adequate to defend a three-for-one swap. Smith and Russo argue that the team could look to move goaltender Filip Gustavsson in the deal but his inclusion may cause too many problems for Columbus in the long run.
Minnesota may have too many internal complications to make a move for Laine with how their salary cap structure currently stands. There is no surefire bet that Laine would even be a significant upgrade for the team either. Between 2021-23, Laine scored 54 goals and 117 points in 129 games for the Blue Jackets but injuries and off-ice struggles limited him to only six goals and nine points in 18 games last year.
If Guerin can confirm that Laine is fully recovered and ready to participate, there may be more reason to get aggressive on a potential trade. However, unless Guerin can pull off one of the craftier trades in the last several years, it does not appear the Wild will be able to get the job done.
Colorado Avalanche Sign Oliver Kylington
Defenseman Oliver Kylington‘s first trip on the free agent market may have lasted longer than he would have liked — but it’s finally over. The Colorado Avalanche announced they have signed the free-agent defenseman to a one-year contract for next season. PuckPedia reports that Colorado will pay Kylington a salary of $1.05MM next year.
It’s difficult to say the Avalanche had a disappointing situation on defense with Cale Makar at the top of the hierarchy but the depth on the blue line was starting to become an issue. The team lost the trade deadline acquisition of Sean Walker to the free agent market while allowing Jack Johnson, Caleb Jones, and Brad Hunt to walk out the door. Arguably, and with very little cap space to work with, the signing of Kylington should put a cap on Colorado putting together better defensive depth than they had last year.
The organization brought Calvin de Haan and Erik Brannstrom to one-year deals earlier in the summer. Kylington should push for a spot next to Brannstrom on the third defensive pairing, which would move de Haan into the seventh defenseman role. Although Kylington is coming off a season in which he only suited up in 33 games for the Calgary Flames, he has shown flashes of being a top-four defenseman earlier in his career.
He was originally drafted 60th overall in the 2015 NHL Draft after a solid year with Färjestad BK J20 of the J20 SuperElit in Sweden. He spent another year in Sweden after being drafted before landing in North America with the Flames organization. It would take a few years for Kylinton to find his footing in professional hockey, after accumulating productive years with the then-Flames AHL affiliate, the Stockton Heat, Kylington became a full-time member of Calgary’s lineup.
His long journey to consistent NHL minutes culminated in his best season to date in the 2021-22 season when Kylington scored nine goals and 31 points in 73 games while averaging 18:10 of ice time per game. The Swedish defensemen benefitted greatly from playing on a staunchly defensive Flames team while finishing third on the blue line in scoring. Unfortunately, due to personal matters in Sweden, Kylington’s last game for quite some time came on May 26th, 2022.
After his matters were resolved Kylington returned to Calgary’s lineup on January 25th, 2024. He also returned to a completely different team. The Flames were in the middle of a major re-tooling when Kylington re-entered the roster as Calgary moved on from Nikita Zadorov, Elias Lindholm, Chris Tanev, and Noah Hanifin during the season with Matthew Tkachuk and Johnny Gaudreau leaving via trade and free agency, respectively.
Kylington finished the 2023-24 season with three goals and eight points in 33 games on a much weaker Flames team. Now, as he joins the second team of his career on a one-year pact with the Avalanche, Kylington immediately joins a Stanley Cup contender for the 2024-25 season. His responsibility will dramatically lessen in Colorado but it may be a perfect opportunity for Kylington to build upon his value in a better system to parlay his one-year deal into a multi-year offer next summer.