International Notes: Worlds, IIHF Hall Of Fame, Subban
Sunday represented the end of the 2026 World Championship, with Finland taking on the host Switzerland in the Gold Medal Game. After the game was goalless in regulation, both teams drew iron with shots in first four minutes of overtime. Then, a little past the midway mark of overtime, Konsta Helenius (a late-event addition after the Sabres were eliminated from the playoffs) was able to beat Leonardo Genoni to give Finland the Gold. It’s the third straight year that the Swiss squad has made the championship game and the third straight time they failed to score a goal. Although they came up short, Predators defenseman Roman Josi was named tournament MVP.
Meanwhile, in the Bronze Medal Game, Norway pulled off the upset, overcoming a blown two-goal lead with less than two minutes to go to beat Canada 3-2 in overtime. The winner was scored by Lightning prospect Noah Steen, who finished off the season in the minors with Syracuse. Heading into the tournament, Norway’s best finish came all the way back in 1951 when they finished fourth. It’s their first-ever medal in any IIHF top-division tournament. Canada, meanwhile, has now failed to secure a medal for the third straight year.
Other news from the world of international hockey:
- As is customary on the final day of the tournament, the IIHF revealed its 2026 Hall of Fame Class. A trio of former NHL players are among the class: center Patrice Bergeron, winger Thomas Vanek, and defenseman Niklas Kronwall. Winger Andres Ambuhl, briefly a Rangers prospect, was also among this year’s class with the mandatory waiting period being waived; he played in a record 20 World Championship events for the Swiss. Former NHL head coach Ralph Krueger along with Cassie Campbell-Pascall, Florence Schelling, and outgoing IIHF President Luc Tardif round out the class.
- After failing to land a deal in North America at the start of the season, Malcolm Subban had to wait a little more than a month before he landed a deal in Czechia. He didn’t play a ton (just 11 games between two leagues) but he did well enough for the league champions to stick around. HC Dynamo Pardubice announced that they’ve inked the 32-year-old for the upcoming season. Subban is only a couple of years removed from being pressed into NHL action but with limited playing time since then, it’s looking less likely that he’ll receive another opportunity at the top level.
Lightning Sign Noah Steen To Entry-Level Deal
The Lightning signed winger prospect Noah Steen to a two-year, entry-level contract on Monday that begins next season, PuckPedia reports. The deal has a total value of $1.95MM, with a cap hit of $972.5K. He will be owed a qualifying offer of $990K upon expiry as a restricted free agent in 2028.
Steen will earn a prorated base salary of $850K in 2026-27 and $900K in 2027-28, based on how much of the schedule, if any, he’s in the NHL. That’s accompanied by a yearly signing bonus of $97.5K and up to $27.5K in performance bonuses next season. His minor-league salary in both years of the contract will be $85K.
Tampa Bay had just over two months left to sign the 21-year-old before they risked losing his exclusive signing rights on June 1. The 6’1″ Norwegian was a seventh-round pick in 2024, two years after he was initially eligible for selection. After spending his earlier development climbing through Sweden’s junior ranks and then making the jump to the pro level in the second-tier HockeyAllsvenskan, Steen has been playing top-flight European pro hockey since the puck dropped on the 2024-25 campaign.
Viewed as a potential penalty kill specialist near the bottom of the lineup, Steen showed this season he may be more than that. After only scoring five goals and one assist in 51 games in his first season with Örebro HK of the Swedish Hockey League last year, he broke out for a 12-10–22 scoring line in 52 games here in 2025-26. That’s the same points per game rate he posted in his only full season of second-division play with Mora IK two years ago.
Steen’s existing contract with Örebro runs through 2026-27. That makes him subject to the NHL’s transfer agreement with the SHL, which stipulates that, as a non-first-round pick under the age of 24, he must be offered back to Örebro first if he doesn’t make the Lightning’s roster out of training camp in the fall before they can assign him to AHL Syracuse. With that in mind, there’s no guarantee he’ll play in North America next season, but he could do so in the back half of his entry-level deal if Örebro doesn’t retain his rights for 2027-28.
Steen wasn’t included as a top-10 prospect in Tampa’s system by Steven Ellis of Daily Faceoff last offseason, but he did jump into 10th place in Scott Wheeler of The Athletic’s rankings earlier this month. He “can play with jump and has good goal-scoring instincts around the offensive zone,” Wheeler wrote, but his ceiling “might top out as a second-line SHLer/AHLer.”