Week In Review

American Thanksgiving is often viewed as a key point in the NHL season.  By now, teams have an idea of what their needs are and will start to try to fill some of those in the coming weeks.  We saw a couple of those moves made this past week which are highlighted in our key stories.

Extension Talks Start For Bratt: Jesper Bratt’s last two contract negotiations haven’t gone as well as either side would have hoped.  His bridge deal was signed just days before the 2020-21 season started and they opted to settle for a one-year, $5.45MM agreement to avoid an arbitration hearing over the summer.  Now, they’re going to take another run at a long-term contract as extension discussions have now started.  Bratt is off to a strong start to his season with 25 points in 22 games, putting him on pace to set new career highs across the board.  If a new deal isn’t reached, he’ll enter restricted free agency this summer with the ability to file for arbitration and take a one-year contract that walks him to the open market in 2024 so it’s safe to say that working something out is going to be a high priority for GM Tom Fitzgerald.

More Toronto Injuries: Already missing Jake Muzzin and T.J. Brodie, the back end for the Maple Leafs got thinned out even more when they placed Morgan Rielly on LTIR with what is believed to be an MCL injury that will keep him out at least a month.  That’s a big blow to their offensive upside from their blueliners as the veteran has 16 assists in 20 games this season while he’s logging 23 minutes a night.  On top of that, veteran Jordie Benn was placed on IR later in the week and is listed as out week to week with an upper-body injury.  Due to the injuries, Toronto GM Kyle Dubas opted to make a small move to add a bit of extra depth, acquiring Conor Timmins from Arizona for AHL center Curtis Douglas.  Timmins was once a highly-regarded prospect following a very productive junior career but has battled concussion trouble and has played in just 14 games between the NHL and AHL dating back to last season.

Four For Kochetkov: Counting the playoffs, Hurricanes goaltender Pyotr Kochetkov has made a total of 13 NHL appearances.  However, he is believed to be their goalie of the future and the team certainly signaled that, inking the 23-year-old to a four-year, $8MM contract extension that begins next season.  The deal gives Carolina half of their goalie tandem at what’s likely to be a below-market rate for the foreseeable future and locks up at least one netminder with both Frederik Andersen and Antti Raanta eligible for unrestricted free agency this summer.  In the meantime, Kochetkov will continue to split time with Raanta with Andersen being on IR before likely returning to AHL Chicago later in the season.

Reaves To Minnesota: After being scratched for several games, Ryan Reaves had requested a trade from the Rangers and his request was granted as New York dealt him to Minnesota in exchange for a 2025 fifth-round pick.  The 35-year-old is best known for his physicality and it’s clear that the Wild were looking to shake up their depth a bit as this move came on the heels of losing Tyson Jost to Buffalo on waivers last weekend.  Reaves’ full $1.75MM cap hit is absorbed by Minnesota which allows the Rangers to bank some extra cap space which is notable as they’re a team that many expect to try to make a splash on the trade front closer to the trade deadline.

Salming Passes Away: Just days after being honored in Toronto, Hall of Fame defenseman Borje Salming passed away at the age of 71.  He had been diagnosed with ALS (or Lou Gehrig’s disease) back in August.  Salming was a six-time All-Star that finished in the top five of Norris Trophy voting for the first seven years of his career and is Toronto’s all-time leader for points by defensemen with 768 amassed over 16 seasons with the team.  He was also one of the first European players to ever play in the NHL and is widely considered a trailblazer to help the game become the truly international one it is today.

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As is often the case in the early going of the season, most of the biggest news from the past seven days came on the injury front although it wasn’t all bad news in that regard.

Done For The Year: The Blue Jackets have had a lot of tough luck when it comes to injuries over the first month of the season and they got their worst news yet as Zach Werenski is out for the season after suffering a separated shoulder and a torn labrum against Philadelphia.  The 25-year-old has been the number one defender for Columbus for the last several years and he had gotten off to a decent start to his campaign with three goals and five assists in his first 13 games and was logging over 25 minutes a night before suffering the injury (which dragged his ATOI below the 24-minute mark).  On top of that, his playing partner Nick Blankenburg fractured his ankle in the same game and will be out for six to eight weeks himself.

Avoiding Surgery: A few weeks ago, it looked like the Senators were going to be without their top center, Josh Norris, potentially for the rest of the season as he was expected to undergo shoulder surgery.  Instead, after consulting with five doctors and two specialists, that’s no longer the plan as he won’t go under the knife and instead will just rehab for the time being with a reassessment scheduled for January.  Potentially getting the 23-year-old back at some point in the second half of the season would be huge for an Ottawa team that has struggled out of the gate as they find themselves at the bottom of the Atlantic Division.

Kane To LTIR: It was a scary sight in Tampa Bay where Edmonton was playing on Tuesday as winger Evander Kane suffered a skate laceration to the wrist after winger Pat Maroon inadvertently cut it.  He underwent successful emergency surgery but will still be out for the bulk of the season as he’ll miss at least the next three to four months with the Oilers quickly transferring him to LTIR.  It’s a huge loss for Edmonton as Kane was fitting in quite nicely in his first full season with the team, picking up 13 points in 14 games while logging over 19 minutes a night on their top line.  Forwards Mattias Janmark and Klim Kostin were recalled from the minors with the freed-up cap space but with Kane likely to return before the end of the season, the Oilers won’t be able to go out and acquire a more prominent replacement as they’ll need to be cap-compliant in order to activate Kane later on.

No World Cup In 2024: Getting away from the injury news for a moment, the NHL and NHLPA jointly announced that the World Cup of Hockey that was scheduled to be held in 2024 will no longer be staged, citing an infeasibility to hold the event in the current environment.  That current environment pertains to Russia and Belarus currently being banned from international play which would have made it difficult to have players from those countries participate in a true best-on-best event.  For now, the plan is to instead have the event in 2025.  The last time the World Cup of Hockey was held was back in 2016, an eight-team event that featured a young North American squad as well as a Team Europe.

Surgery For Nichushkin: On top of being without Gabriel Landeskog, the Avalanche lost another one of their top wingers when Valeri Nichushkin underwent successful ankle surgery that will keep him out of the lineup for a month.  The 27-year-old had gotten off to a very strong start to his season, his first on his eight-year deal, notching seven goals in as many games while chipping in with five assists, good for fifth in the league in points per game heading into Sunday’s action.  Unfortunately for him and the Avs, that hot start has now been derailed for a little while at least as their forward depth starts to get tested.

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As the calendar flips to November, teams are starting to get a sense of their needs which should provide some hope for the trade market to slowly pick up over the next little while.  In the meantime, the bulk of the top stories over the past seven days have been on the injury front.

Drysdale Out Long Term: As this was the final season of Jamie Drysdale’s entry-level contract, this was his opportunity to have a big year that set him up for a long-term, big-money agreement.  Unfortunately for both him and the Ducks, that won’t be happening as he suffered a torn labrum that requires surgery which will keep him out for four to six months.  The 20-year-old could return before the end of the year if his recovery is on the shorter end of that timeline but it will still wind up being two entry-level seasons with limited action.  That will make a long-term deal considerably tougher to work out this summer and increases the chances that at least one of the two sides will prefer a bridge agreement.

On The Market: Forget about players possibly being on the market for a moment but there is about to be a team on the market as the Senators have started the process of selling the franchise.  Long-time owner Eugene Melnyk passed away back in March with control of the team shifting to his daughters who are still in their early twenties.  The most recent Sportico valuation of the team was $650MM but with the team on the rise and the prospect of a downtown arena looking quite strong, it’s possible that they’ll be able to land more than that, especially since that was the price tag for Seattle to join the league in expansion and franchise values have only gone up since then.

Done For The Year: Connor Brown had been a key two-way winger for Ottawa for years before he was moved to Washington where the hope was that he could become a bit more productive in a more offensive role as he heads toward unrestricted free agency next summer.  Unfortunately, that won’t be happening now as the 28-year-old will miss the next six to eight months after undergoing ACL surgery that almost certainly will end his season.  Brown will now hit the open market next summer having played just four games in 2022-23 with questions almost certain to follow about his skating after a significant knee injury.  That’s about as disastrous a contract year as it could have been while the Capitals have lost someone that was supposed to be a key part of their forward group.

More Injuries: Despite the fact that they’re first in the East, the Bruins have been hit hard by injuries in the early going this season and that continued this past week.  On top of losing Derek Forbort, they’ll also be without goaltender Jeremy Swayman who is listed as being out week to week.  The 23-year-old is part of an effective tandem with Linus Ullmark but the veteran will be getting the bulk of the workload for a little while now.  Meanwhile, the Red Wings will be without winger Filip Zadina for the foreseeable future as the 22-year-old broke a bone while blocking a shot against the Islanders on Saturday.  Head coach Derek Lalonde indicated it’s a matter of months, not weeks before he’s able to return.  Detroit is already without three other regular wingers so their depth is getting tested early on.

Miller Signs, Then Gets Released: In a surprising move, the Bruins elected to sign former Coyotes draft pick Mitchell Miller to a three-year, entry-level deal.  The 20-year-old’s rights were renounced shortly after he was drafted following the details being released about a 2016 assault conviction for bullying and abusing a Black, developmentally disabled classmate; North Dakota later dropped Miller from their program as well.  NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman indicated that Miller isn’t currently eligible to play in the NHL (and may never be) which called into question his AHL eligibility as well.  However, that question isn’t relevant to Boston now as they elected to part ways with Miller on Sunday, barely 48 hours after signing him.

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The final full week of October is in the books and we started to see some activity on the trade front while there was some notable injury news as well.  Those are among the topics in our key stories of the week.

Not Hanging Them Up Yet: While Carey Price has already been ruled out for the season with a particularly grim outlook on his ability to return, he indicated that he hasn’t given up hope of eventually returning.  The veteran is dealing with considerable knee pain and is hesitant to undergo surgery, one that only carries a 50/50 chance of success and could lead to some long-term problems if it doesn’t go well.  Instead, he’s holding out hope that rest and rehab will eventually give him a chance to return to the ice.  Price is signed through 2025-26 with a $10.5MM AAV and will be on LTIR for Montreal for that entire stretch unless he’s able to return.

More Flyers Injuries: The Flyers entered today in first place in the Metropolitan Division despite missing several regulars due to injuries.  That list grew as winger James van Riemsdyk underwent finger surgery that will force him to miss four-to-six weeks, hardly an ideal situation for someone in a contract year.  On top of that, while they were hoping that Sean Couturier would be back sooner than later, he stopped skating and it was revealed that he’ll be out for three to four months as he works his way back from a back injury.  Veterans Cam Atkinson and Ryan Ellis have yet to play for Philadelphia this season as well with the latter likely to miss the entire season.

Back Early: The Bruins were expected to be without Brad Marchand until late November after undergoing double hip surgery back in May.  Players sometimes come back a bit earlier than expected but rarely do they beat the expected timeline by a month.  However, that’s exactly what Marchand did as he returned with a bang, picking up three points in his season debut.  He won’t play in back-to-backs for now as he eases his way back into the lineup but Boston has to be thrilled that one of their top performers is back as they look to maintain their hot start that has seen them lose just once this season.  Veteran Mike Reilly was sent to the minors to create the cap space to activate Marchand.

Making Moves: The trade market is typically slow this time of year but that didn’t stop Vancouver from making a couple of swaps.  First, they acquired forward Jack Studnicka from Boston in exchange for goaltender Michael DiPietro and prospect defenseman Jonathan Myrenberg.  Studnicka was a productive player in junior but it hasn’t translated to much success in the pros so the Canucks will try to coax that production out of him.  Meanwhile, they made a move to shore up an injury-depleted back end, picking up Ethan Bear and AHL forward Lane Pederson from Carolina in exchange for a fifth-round pick with the Hurricanes retaining $400K of Bear’s $2.2MM salary.  It wasn’t that long ago that Bear was viewed as a possible long-term part of Edmonton’s back end and with the injuries they have, he’ll have a chance to step in and play an impact role right away.

Losing A Key Center: Expectations are high in Ottawa this season as their young players are expected to take a step forward while they added several key veterans.  Joshua Norris is one of the youngsters they had high expectations for as their top center but he’ll be out for the next three to five months due to a shoulder injury.  While head coach D.J. Smith is holding out hope that the 23-year-old will be able to return this season, he acknowledged that he’s not overly confident of that which suggests the longer end of that recovery timeline is the likeliest one.

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The regular season is in full flight and while things have predictably been quiet on the trade front, there has still been plenty of news of note around the NHL which is recapped in our key stories.

Potential For Early Cap Increase? The expectation has long been that there will be at least one more season after this one where the salary cap increase would be limited to $1MM as the players continue to pay off the COVID-related escrow to bring the split back to 50/50.  However, NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman expressed some optimism that the balance could be paid off this season, allowing for an increase that could be closer to $4MM for next season.  With 13 teams already needing LTIR to be cap-compliant and six others with less than $1MM in cap space at the moment, that extra bump would be welcome news for them.

Early Extension: Flames backup goaltender Daniel Vladar had a good first season with Calgary and would have been eligible for salary arbitration this summer.  Instead, he took a pass on that, instead agreeing to a two-year, $4.4MM contract extension.  The 25-year-old played his first full season in 2021-22, serving as Jacob Markstrom’s backup while getting into 23 games.  Head coach Darryl Sutter has indicated a desire to have Vladar play once a week which could have boosted his value had the Flames decided to wait until the summer to work this deal out.  However, Vladar will be eligible for unrestricted free agency when this deal expires in 2025.

Knee Surgery For Landeskog: It was known back in training camp that Avalanche captain Gabriel Landeskog wouldn’t be ready for the start of the season.  However, he was expected to start skating about a week and a half ago, providing some optimism that he’d be back soon.  That idea was kiboshed quickly as the team revealed that the winger underwent knee surgery that will keep him out for roughly the next 12 weeks.  It’s certainly a big loss for Colorado as the 29-year-old has been a key part of their attack for more than a decade and was coming off his best season in terms of points per game.  Now, what looked like a short-term injury to start the year will now keep Landeskog out for at least the first half of the season.

More Key Injuries: The Panthers don’t have the deepest of back ends and their depth will be further tested for a little while as the team placed Aaron Ekblad on LTIR with a lower-body injury.  Fortunately for Florida, it appears their top defender will be out somewhere from four-to-seven weeks although they’ll certainly miss him in the short term.  Meanwhile, the Red Wings will be without winger Tyler Bertuzzi for four-to-six weeks due to an upper-body injury.  Missing a top liner is hardly ideal for Detroit nor is it ideal for the 27-year-old who is eligible to reach unrestricted free agency next summer for the first time.  On top of those, the Coyotes will be without one of their top scorers from last season as center Nick Schmaltz will miss six-to-eight weeks with an upper-body injury of his own.  Arizona isn’t exactly a deep offensive team as they look to bottom out in the standings and now they’re without a top threat until sometime in December.

Vrana Enters Player Assistance Program: Bertuzzi isn’t the only key winger that the Red Wings are without as the league announced that Jakub Vrana has entered the NHL/NHLPA player assistance program.  No further details were provided and there is no set timeline for when the 26-year-old might be able to return.  Vrana is in his third season with Detroit after being acquired back at the 2020 trade deadline but due to injuries, had only played in 39 games with them before this announcement.

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The regular season is underway and while it will be fairly quiet on the trade front in the early going, there was still plenty of news around the NHL which is highlighted in our key stories.

Successful Tryouts: Several players were able to land contracts off their professional tryout agreements.  Ottawa inked veteran center Derick Brassard to a one-year deal at the league minimum, giving them some extra depth down the middle.  Carolina did the same with veteran Derek Stepan, giving him the same contract for what will be his second season with the Hurricanes.  Michael Stone is staying with Calgary as the Flames signed him to a two-way deal worth the minimum in the NHL.  Lastly, Anton Stralman’s tryout was successful as he agreed to a one-year, $1MM contract although that deal has yet to be registered with the league.  Couple that with the handful of veterans that signed earlier and this was one of the more successful PTO groups in recent history when it comes to landing guaranteed contracts.

Down To One: The list of remaining restricted free agents was cut in half when the Golden Knights agreed to terms with defenseman Nicolas Hague on a three-year deal worth just under $2.3MM per season.  The 23-year-old was one of the first group of Vegas draft picks and he worked his way into a regular role fairly quickly while averaging 18:40 per night.  The AAV of the contract lined up well in terms of allowing Vegas to maximize their LTIR pool as the Golden Knights will be deep into that once again this season.  Hague will have one year of RFA eligibility remaining after this deal and will be owed a $2.7MM qualifying offer.  Senators winger Alex Formenton is the last restricted free agent in the NHL.

Staying In Philadelphia: Travis Sanheim won’t be leaving the Flyers anytime soon as the two sides worked out a maximum-term eight-year contract extension that carries a $6.25MM AAV.  The deal also contains a full no-trade clause for the first four years and a 12-team no-trade clause for the final four seasons.  The 26-year-old is one of Philadelphia’s top defensemen and is coming off one of his best offensive years that saw him put up 31 points in 80 games while averaging just under 23 minutes a night.  If Sanheim is able to produce at a similar level during this contract and continue to log the second-most minutes on the team, the Flyers should get a good return on this deal.

Sabres Signings: While the Sabres already had Don Granato signed through the end of next season, they decided to give him an early extension, signing him to a two-year deal that keeps him signed through 2025-26.  The Sabres have played to a .438 points percentage since he took over late in the 2020-21 campaign and while that might not seem great at first glance, Buffalo has been rebuilding during that stretch and the team has been considerably more competitive with him behind the bench so this move was a vote of approval of how he has the team playing.

Meanwhile, later that day, the team announced another extension as they signed defenseman Mattias Samuelsson to a seven-year, $30MM deal that begins next season.  The 22-year-old was an early second-round pick in 2018 and got into 42 games in 2021-22 where he averaged 20 minutes a game.  Buffalo clearly believes this is only the beginning for Samuelsson who has yet to score in his young career.  However, a $4.29MM AAV for a top-four defender is certainly reasonable and it’s likely that those will be his prime years as well.  The contract might seem odd on the surface but it’s a logical move for them to make since they’re convinced that he’s a part of the long-term plans in Buffalo.

Key Injuries: Montreal has a pretty thin back end when the team is fully healthy.  They were already missing Joel Edmundson due to a back issue sustained in a pre-camp scrimmage and now they’ll be without another key veteran as Mike Matheson will miss eight weeks with an abdominal injury.  The end result is that the Canadiens are dressing four rookie defensemen at the moment.  Meanwhile, the Maple Leafs will be without their presumptive starter Matt Murray for at least a month after he suffered an adductor injury in practice on Saturday.  The fact he’ll be out that long (10 games and 24 days minimum) enabled them to place him on LTIR which opened up some short-term cap space to recall some extra skaters.  Those moves were made Sunday with the recalls of wingers Nicholas Robertson and Wayne Simmonds plus defenseman Victor Mete.

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The regular season is underway for two teams while the rest of the league gets started in the coming days.  Accordingly, activity has picked up over the coming days and the upcoming week will likely be a busy one.  Before that, let’s take a look back at the key stories from the week that was.

Under The Knife Again: The long-term injury to Marco Scandella was supposed to present an opportunity for Scott Perunovich to earn a regular spot in the lineup.  Unfortunately for him and the Blues, that’s not going to happen as he’ll miss at least the next six months and will need shoulder surgery.  It’s the second major shoulder injury of his career although it’s not the same issue as the torn labrum that cost him the 2020-21 campaign.  Perunovich was a productive defenseman in college and averaged more than a point per game in 17 contests with AHL Springfield last season but he’ll be waiting a while now to have a chance at making a consistent impact in St. Louis.

Extending In Calgary: MacKenzie Weegar’s camp was hoping to get an extension worked out before the season and they got their wish, inking a max-term eight-year deal that carries a $6.25MM AAV.  The defenseman was the other key roster player that came as part of the Matthew Tkachuk trade this summer.  (The other roster piece, Jonathan Huberdeau, inked a max-term extension himself not long ago.)  Weegar has blossomed from being a late-round pick in his second year of eligibility to an all-around impact defender and will help anchor Calgary’s back end for years to come.  Meanwhile, the team will continue to be led behind the bench by Darryl Sutter, who agreed to a two-year extension of his own.  The reigning Jack Adams Award winner was entering the final year of his deal and at 64, a short-term agreement was expected.  He’ll be leading a new-look Flames squad that also lost Johnny Gaudreau this summer while they also picked up Nazem Kadri.

Staying With The Islanders: Recently, Mathew Barzal had indicated a desire to get a long-term deal done with the Islanders and they were able to do just that as the center signed a max-term eight-year, $73.2MM ($9.15MM AAV) contract extension that begins next season.  The pact will give him a 22-team no-trade clause when he becomes eligible for one in 2024-25.  Barzal burst onto the NHL scene in 2017-18, leading the team in points with 85 while winning the Calder Trophy.  However, he has failed to come close to that output since then, topping out at 62 over the last four years.  With that in mind, the price tag might seem a little steep but this deal ensures that New York will have their top center locked up for quite a while as they hope that the coaching change to Lane Lambert will help Barzal regain some of his lost production.

Creating Cap Room: There are some teams that need to free up cap space and not a lot of teams are willing to take on extra money.  Vancouver was a team wanting some flexibility while Chicago had made it known they’d be open to doing so at the right price.  That right price evidently was a 2024 second-round pick as the Blackhawks acquired one along with center Jason Dickinson from the Canucks in exchange for defenseman Riley Stillman.  Dickinson struggled mightily in his only season with Vancouver (after they moved a third-rounder to get him) with just 11 points in 62 games, hardly a good return on a $2.65MM investment that runs through 2023-24.  Stillman, meanwhile, makes $1.35MM in each of the next two seasons, giving Vancouver $1.3MM in cap room while filling a short-term void on the back end with both Tyler Myers and Travis Dermott out of the lineup right now.

Finding Middle Ground: The belief was that the Stars were going to work out either a short-term bridge deal or a long-term pact with RFA winger Jason Robertson.  In the end, they settled on something in between, agreeing to a four-year deal that carries a $7.75MM AAV.  Notably, this does not walk the 23-year-old to unrestricted free agency as he’ll still have one year of RFA eligibility remaining where he’ll have arbitration rights and be owed a $9.3MM qualifying offer.  Robertson is coming off a breakout year that saw him finish second on Dallas in scoring for the second straight year while posting 41 goals and 38 assists in 74 games, becoming an integral part of their forward group in the process.  This deal ensures he’ll be in the lineup on opening night while guaranteeing him an even bigger payday in 2026.

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The calendar has flipped to October and the regular season is now on the horizon.  This is the time when there is often a lot of activity on the signing front and this week was no exception as a few signings are featured in our key stories.

Staying In Montreal: The Canadiens are once again expected to be near the bottom of the league this season and accordingly, it’s expected that several veterans on expiring deals will be moved at some point.  That list no longer will include goaltender Jake Allen as the 32-year-old inked a two-year, $7.MM extension to stay with Montreal through the 2024-25 season.  The deal contains limited no-trade protection in each season.  With Carey Price’s playing future in doubt, Allen projects to be the starter for the foreseeable future and this deal, which represents a little more than a $1MM raise in terms of his AAV, cements that status.

Injury News: The Canucks will be without Brock Boeser when the season gets underway after the winger underwent hand surgery that will keep him out for three-to-four weeks.  The 25-year-old is coming off his second straight 23-goal season and is fresh off signing a three-year contract but he’ll have to wait a little bit before making his debut on that deal.  Meanwhile, Maple Leafs center John Tavares is also unlikely to be available for the start of the season due to an oblique strain.  Toronto’s captain has averaged just shy of a point per game in his time with the team and is coming off a season that saw him win over 60% of his faceoffs for the first time in his career.  It wasn’t all bad news on the injury front, however, as the Flyers learned that top center Sean Couturier won’t need surgery on his back after suffering a setback.  He missed most of last season with that issue and remains listed as week-to-week but they’ve avoided the worst-case scenario for now at least.

Bridge For Knight: Starting in 2023-24, Florida’s goalie tandem is going to be considerably more expensive after the team signed Spencer Knight to a three-year, $13.5MM extension that begins in 2023-24.  The 21-year-old has just 36 career regular season appearances under his belt but has been viewed as the Panthers’ goalie of the future from the moment he was drafted 13th overall in 2019.  In those three seasons, their netminding tandem will cost $14.5MM once you add in Sergei Bobrovsky’s contract which directly goes against the more recent trend of trying to shave costs between the pipes.  Notably, Knight’s deal is uniformly-distributed which means he’ll be owed a $4.5MM qualifying offer in the 2026 offseason.  They’ll certainly be counting on the expected cap increase in 2024-25 to help offset those costs.

And Then There Were Three: The list of remaining restricted free agents has dropped to three as the Maple Leafs and defenseman Rasmus Sandin reached an agreement on a two-year, $2.8MM contract.  The contract matches the one given to Timothy Liljegren which was what his camp was trying to beat in negotiations.  Instead, he’ll settle for a higher 2023-24 salary which means his qualifying offer will check in at $1.6MM.  Sandin should have an opportunity to earn a spot in Toronto’s opening night lineup with the team dealing with several injuries on the back end at the moment.

Three For Peake: Andrew Peeke had a strong first full NHL campaign last season with Columbus, becoming a key stay-at-home defender.  The Blue Jackets believe there’s more to come from him as they signed the 24-year-old to a three-year, $8.25MM contract extension that runs through 2025-26.  Peeke led them in blocks last season with 169 and led all Columbus defenders in hits with 191 while averaging over 21 minutes a game before putting forth a strong showing for Team USA at the World Championship.  This deal buys up one year of UFA eligibility while Peeke is poised to hit the open market at 28.

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With training camps quickly approaching, there is a push from teams to get some contracts in place.  Several of those highlight the key stories of the week.

Canadiens Re-Sign Two: Montreal was one of only three teams to still have multiple restricted free agents heading into September but they dealt with both of those soon after.  First, Kirby Dach received a rare four-year bridge contract that carries an AAV of $3.3625MM; he will still be a restricted free agent at its conclusion with a $4MM qualifying offer.  Acquired at the draft from Chicago, the 2019 third-overall pick will get a chance for a fresh start with Montreal.  The following day, Cayden Primeau inked a three-year, one-way deal with a cap hit of $890K.  With the team approaching the offseason cap ceiling (10% over the salary cap), Carey Price was moved to LTIR to allow the team to stay in compliance.  At this point, the veteran isn’t expected to play this coming season.

Bernier Unlikely To Start Season: Devils goaltender Jonathan Bernier was hoping to be ready for training camp after missing the second half of last season due to hip surgery but that will not be the case.  The 34-year-old has made just 34 appearances over the last two years due to injuries and now won’t be starting the final year of his contract on a high note.  New Jersey was more prepared for this scenario this time as they added Vitek Vanecek from Washington earlier this summer.  He and Mackenzie Blackwood will serve as their goalie tandem until Bernier comes back (if he’s able to).

Eight For Stutzle: Through his first two NHL seasons, Senators forward Tim Stutzle has shown some offensive promise while also transitioning to playing center.  The team clearly believes there is much more to come as they handed the 20-year-old an eight-year extension that has a cap hit of $8.35MM.  The deal will begin in the 2023-24 campaign.  The third-overall pick in 2020, he had 58 points in 79 games last season and with Ottawa adding some impact forwards this summer in Claude Giroux and Alex DeBrincat, Stutzle should be primed for a big jump this coming season.  The Senators have done quite well getting their young core to bypass bridge deals in favor of signing long-term contracts as Stutzle joins Brady Tkachuk, Joshua Norris, Drake Batherson, and Thomas Chabot as key players that have done so.

Talking Extension: Earlier this offseason, the Blues signed Robert Thomas to an eight-year extension.  Now, they’ve apparently shifted their focus towards another key youngster entering the final year of his contract as the team has started extension discussions with winger Jordan Kyrou.  The 24-year-old is coming off a career year that saw him put up 75 points in 74 games to finish fourth on the team in scoring, making his $2.8MM cap hit for 2022-23 quite a bargain.  When Thomas signed his extension, it carried a cap hit of $8.125MM and it’s likely that Kyrou’s will come in fairly close to that number if it winds up being a max-term agreement as well.

Tryout Time: In recent years, there has been an influx of veteran players that need to settle for a training camp tryout with the hopes of landing a contract from there.  This is shaping up to be no exception as six veterans all agreed to training camp PTOs.  On the back end, Danny DeKeyser joined Vancouver, Calvin de Haan is with Carolina for a second stint, Scott Harrington will try to crack the lineup in San Jose, while Nathan Beaulieu tries to do the same in Anaheim.  Meanwhile, forward Zach Aston-Reese will look to land a spot on Toronto’s fourth line while Calgary brought in Cody Eakin.  Expect several more veteran players to go this route over the coming week.

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As the calendar has flipped to September, activity has started to pick up around the league with training camps on the horizon as some notable signings headline our key stories.

Vegas Adds A Goalie: With Robin Lehner out for the year, Vegas was looking at entering the season with a tandem of Logan Thompson and Laurent Brossoit, who is coming back from hip trouble.  GM Kelly McCrimmon spent some of his increased flexibility to add Phil Kessel earlier and then used most of what was left this past week to add another option between the pipes, acquiring Adin Hill from San Jose in exchange for a fourth-round pick.  The 26-year-old had an okay first season with the Sharks, posting a 2.66 GAA with a .906 SV% in 25 games in an injury-riddled year.  He has one year left on his contract with a $2.175MM AAV and while he has just 74 career NHL games under his belt, he’ll give the Golden Knights another viable option as they look to get back to the playoffs without a true number one netminder.

Keeping Their Coach: Mike Sullivan had two more years left on his contract so there was no immediate need to work on a new deal.  However, that didn’t stop the Penguins from locking up their bench boss as they handed him a three-year extension to keep him under contract through the 2026-27 campaign.  Sullivan has been behind the bench since December 2015, making him the second-longest tenured coach in the NHL behind Tampa Bay’s Jon Cooper.  In that time, Pittsburgh has a 297-156-54 record (.639 points percentage) while winning a pair of Stanley Cups in 2016 and 2017.  The Penguins have had stability behind the bench for a while and with this move, that won’t be changing anytime soon.

Seven For Thompson: Tage Thompson was one of the biggest surprises in the NHL last season.  After recording just 18 goals and 17 assists in his first 145 games, he exploded offensively in 2021-22 with 38 goals and 30 assists in 68 contests to lead the Sabres in scoring.  While Buffalo could have waited to see if he could sustain those numbers this coming season, they’ve instead given him a significant vote of confidence, handing him a seven-year, $50MM extension that will begin in 2023-24 and buys out five seasons of UFA eligibility.  It’s a deal that certainly carries some risk if the 24-year-old takes a step back offensively, but if his performance is a sign of things to come, the Sabres will have their top a big piece of the puzzle locked up for the long haul.

Bridge For Oettinger: With Dallas not having a ton of cap space at their disposal and the fact that Jake Oettinger only had just 77 career NHL appearances, a bridge deal was the expected outcome for the restricted free agent.  In the end, that’s exactly what happened as the two sides agreed to a three-year, $12MM agreement that will keep the 23-year-old RFA eligible at its expiration with a $4.8MM qualifying offer.  Oettinger started last season in the minors but quickly ascended to the starting role after being recalled in November, posting a 2.53 GAA along with a .914 SV% before a stellar performance against Calgary in the playoffs which nearly allowed them to pull off the seven-game upset.  With this deal done, the Stars will now turn their focus to RFA winger Jason Robertson.

Sticking Around: For the better part of a year, Canucks center J.T. Miller had been the subject of trade speculation with the team believed to have gone fairly deep into discussions with other teams.  But the whole time, both parties said they wanted to find a way to get an extension in place and they were able to do just that as the veteran signed a seven-year, $56MM deal that will begin in 2023-24.  The 29-year-old is coming off a dominant season that saw him record 99 points, good for ninth in the league.  $8MM for a top center isn’t overly expensive from an AAV perspective if Miller is able to maintain close to that level of production although signing him through his age-37 season will carry some risk.  Even so, Vancouver has their top pivot locked up for the long haul as they look to get back to playoff contention.

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