Week In Review

The stretch run is now in full swing with the playoffs just a little more than a month away.  Even with the trade deadline in the rearview mirror, there was still some news of note which is recapped in our key stories.

One More Year: Jonathan Quick’s career isn’t coming to an end just yet.  The Rangers are keeping the goaltender around for another year after they signed him to a one-year contract extension.  The deal will carry a cap hit of $1.55MM while it contains an additional $300K in performance incentives tied to starts, games played, save percentage, and wins.  Quick earns a raise for the second straight year as his initial year in New York saw him make $825K before bonuses while his guaranteed salary this season is $1.275MM.  The 39-year-old has a 3.14 GAA with a .896 SV% in 21 appearances in 2024-25, a notable drop-off in his numbers from a year ago.

Bad News For Hamilton: The week-to-week injury that Devils defenseman Dougie Hamilton is dealing with may be better off being termed as month-to-month.  It was revealed that the veteran will miss the remainder of the regular season and at least the first round of the playoffs due to a lower-body injury sustained earlier this month.  That means he’ll miss at least two months with the issue.  The 31-year-old had an injury-riddled campaign last season that saw him play in just 20 games.  This season, Hamilton made it into 63 contests, notching 40 points in a little under 20 minutes a night of playing time.  With Jack Hughes also out for the year, New Jersey’s push for the playoffs will see them have to get in without two of their top-five scorers.

Ekblad Gets 20: Aaron Ekblad’s 2024-25 regular season came to an end much earlier than expected.  However, it wasn’t due to an injury.  Instead, the Panthers blueliner was given a 20-game suspension for testing positive for a performance-enhancing substance.  The length of the suspension is fixed at 20 games for a first offense.  Ekblad released a statement indicating that the positive test stemmed from taking something to help him recover from recent injuries that he didn’t clear with team personnel first.  He will miss the final 18 games of the regular season as well as Florida’s first two playoff appearances.  Ekblad finishes the first part of the campaign with 33 points in 56 games as he gets set to test unrestricted free agency for the first time this summer.

Kovalchuk Calls It A Career: Veteran winger Ilya Kovalchuk has hung up his skates, announcing his retirement at the age of 41.  In his prime, he was an elite winger with Atlanta before signing a long-term contract with New Jersey; the original 17-year agreement was deemed cap circumvention but a revised 15-year pact was approved.  (New Jersey’s final cap charge for salary cap recapture comes off the books after this season.)  But he left that contract after three seasons, going to the KHL for six seasons before a brief NHL return.  All told, Kovalchuk collected 443 goals and 423 assists in 926 NHL games over parts of 13 years along with 352 points in 334 contests in eight KHL campaigns.

Hill’s Sticking Around: The goaltending position in Vegas has been solidified for the long haul as the Golden Knights signed Adin Hill to a six-year, $37.5MM contract extension.  The deal, which carries a $6.25MM cap charge, is a nice raise from his current $4.9MM AAV while it also checks in a little ahead of former teammate Logan Thompson, who signed for $5.85MM per season in Washington on a new deal that starts next season.  Initially acquired as injury insurance back in 2022, Hill has worked his way from being a platoon netminder to a full-fledged starter and has posted a .910 SV% in his three seasons with the Golden Knights.  Hill received a partial no-trade clause as part of the contract, one that kicked in immediately.

Photo courtesy of Imagn Images.

The trade deadline has come and gone and as is always the case, deadline week was a whirlwind across the NHL.  We’ll compile as much of the news as we can into our key stories.

Busy Week For Utah: While Utah wasn’t overly active on the trade front aside from unloading Shea Weber’s contract to Chicago to open up cap space for next season, they were the busiest team in the league on the contract extension front.  They went into the week with five full-time regulars as pending unrestricted free agents and came out of it with just one.  Getting new deals were center Alexander Kerfoot (one year, $3MM), defensemen Ian Cole (one year, $3MM including bonuses) and Olli Maatta (three years, $10.5MM), plus goaltender Karel Vejmelka (five years, $23.75MM).  As a result of their moves, Utah now has over $22MM in cap room for next season, per PuckPedia, with only a few roster spots to fill.  The team also lost goaltender Connor Ingram to another stint in the Player Assistance Program; he will be out indefinitely.

Atlantic Shuffle: The top three teams in the Atlantic Division already have some separation from the pack in the standings and all three made moves to shore up their rosters.  After adding blueliner Seth Jones from Chicago last week, the team moved winger Matthew Tkachuk to LTIR for the rest of the season and used that cap space to add winger Brad Marchand for a second-round pick that could become a first-round selection depending on Florida’s playoff success and Marchand’s usage in those games.  Meanwhile, their cross-state rival in Tampa Bay paid a pair of first-round picks and more to Seattle to pick up winger Oliver Bjorkstrand and center Yanni Gourde, making their forward group a lot deeper in one swap.  Toronto elected to make a pair of moves to keep pace, first sending a first-rounder and winger Nikita Grebenkin to Philadelphia for center Scott Laughton and a pair of later-round selections.  They then dealt a first-round pick and center Fraser Minten to Boston for blueliner Brandon Carlo while flipping rearguard Conor Timmins and center Connor Dewar to Pittsburgh to clear up the salary cap space to make the move.

It wasn’t just the contenders who were making moves.  On top of moving Marchand and Carlo, Boston’s sell-off continued as they swapped centers with Colorado, acquiring Casey Mittelstadt and a second-round pick from the Avs in exchange for Charlie Coyle (other smaller pieces were also in the swap).  Lastly, Buffalo and Ottawa got in on the fun, making a rare in-division swap of core centers.  The Senators picked up Dylan Cozens, defenseman Dennis Gilbert, and a second-round pick for Josh Norris and blueliner Jacob Bernard-Docker.  Both Cozens and Norris are 25 or younger and on long-term contracts with a cap hit starting with a seven.  Ottawa then used the cap space to make a literal last-minute move (agreed to 27 seconds before the deadline) that saw them pick up winger Fabian Zetterlund from San Jose as part of a six-piece swap that saw winger Noah Gregor, center Zack Ostapchuk, and a second-round pick go the other way.

Rantanen Moves Again: After Colorado struck a deal to make a big splash up front when they added Brock Nelson from the Islanders for a first-round pick and prospect Calum Ritchie, the Stars found a way to make an even bigger splash.  After the deal was off-and-on throughout deadline day, Dallas picked up winger Mikko Rantanen from Carolina in exchange for winger Logan Stankoven, two first-round picks, and two third-round selections.  As part of the swap, Rantanen immediately agreed to an eight-year, $96MM contract extension, the richest contract given to a winger in terms of AAV in NHL history.  Rantanen wasn’t able to agree to terms with Colorado on a new deal which saw him flipped to Carolina in late January.  He didn’t seem to be willing to sign with them before the deadline so the Hurricanes made sure they didn’t lose him for nothing while a deep Dallas squad just got even better, landing the top player available.

More Extensions: Rantanen’s extension wasn’t the only big one Dallas gave out.  While they were initially trying to sign center Wyatt Johnston to an eight-year deal, they had to pivot following Rantanen’s acquisition, ultimately settling on a five-year, $42MM agreement.  Meanwhile, many other extensions were agreed on throughout the week.  In terms of rentals signing to be pulled off the trade market, Montreal inked center Jake Evans (four years, $11.4MM) while Buffalo signed wingers Jordan Greenway (two years, $8MM) and Jason Zucker (two years, $9.5MM).  Other notable deals from teams that weren’t likely to move the players had an agreement not been reached included Washington signing goaltender Charlie Lindgren (three years, $9MM), Columbus re-signing winger Mathieu Olivier (six years, $18MM), and New Jersey re-upping defenseman Johnathan Kovacevic (five years, $20MM).

Bad News for New Jersey: While they were happy to get Kovacevic’s deal done, not much else went right for the Devils this past week.  First, they lost star center Jack Hughes for the remainder of the season and playoffs after he underwent shoulder surgery.  He was immediately moved to LTIR to give the club more cap flexibility although they weren’t able to use much of it.  Next, defenseman Dougie Hamilton was listed as out week-to-week with a lower-body injury.  Lastly, they learned that blueliner Jonas Siegenthaler’s lower-body injury will keep him out for at least the rest of the regular season.  Those three key absences will make locking down a playoff spot considerably tougher.  New Jersey made a handful of moves to add some extra depth before the deadline with the more notable moves being the acquisitions of defenseman Brian Dumoulin from Anaheim and center Cody Glass from Pittsburgh.

Photo courtesy of Imagn Images.

The trade deadline is now less than a week away.  Not surprisingly, several of the key stories from the past seven days are on the trade front with a handful of teams looking to get a jump on bringing in some help.

Wild Bring Back Nyquist: For the second time in just over two years, the Wild acquired winger Gustav Nyquist before the deadline.  In 2023, they gave up a fifth-round pick to get him but this time, the cost was higher as they had to part with a 2026 second-round selection to get him from Nashville.  As part of the move, the Predators are retaining half of the $3.185MM cap charge.  The 35-year-old had a career year last season, tallying 75 points in 81 games but hasn’t been able to produce anywhere near the same level this year with 21 points in 57 contests before the swap.  However, Nyquist had some success with the Wild in 2023 and he should be able to help give them some extra scoring depth for their playoff push.

Done For The Year: After missing almost all of last season after undergoing knee surgery, Canadiens center Kirby Dach will miss roughly the final two months of this year after once again having knee surgery on the same knee.  The former third-overall pick had a quiet year, tallying 10 goals and 12 assists in 57 games and will now have lots of rehab on his knee for the second straight year.  Meanwhile, the Red Wings will be without a key veteran for the rest of the year after Andrew Copp underwent surgery to repair a torn pectoral muscle.  He had 10 goals and 13 helpers in 56 games this season while also seeing regular time shorthanded.  Detroit, did, however, free up some cap space to replace him when they dealt Ville Husso to Anaheim for future considerations, opening up lots of flexibility for GM Steve Yzerman heading into Friday’s deadline.

Panthers Make A Splash: The Panthers decided to go big with their pre-deadline move, acquiring defenseman Seth Jones and a 2026 fourth-round pick from Chicago in exchange for goaltender Spencer Knight and a 2026 first-round pick (that could become a 2027 first).  The Blackhawks are retaining $2.5MM of Jones’ $9.5MM AAV (through 2029-30) as part of the move.  Jones recently indicated an openness to be moved to a contender and he gets his wish.  He’s been in the number one role for Chicago for quite some time but will go to a club where he won’t be counted on quite as much which might work out well for both sides.  Meanwhile, Chicago will get a look at Knight who was once viewed as one of the top young goalies in the league to see if he can be part of their long-term plans while adding another first-round pick and some future cap flexibility as their long rebuild continues.

Suspension Reduced: It’s not often that NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman will step in and reduce a suspension but he did so in Wild forward Ryan Hartman’s case.  After initially receiving a ten-game ban, Bettman opted to lower that to eight games.  In his ruling, he noted that despite a fairly lengthy recent history of supplemental discipline, an increase of seven games from his most recent suspension “is excessive in this case and that the quantum of increase should be reduced.”  As a result of the reduction, Hartman will be eligible to return to the lineup on Tuesday and with the Wild dealing with some other injury woes on their active roster (suspended players count against the 23-player roster), it also may have made it easier to pull the trigger on the Nyquist deal now over waiting a few more days.

Avs Add A Blueliner: The Avalanche added some depth on the back end, acquiring blueliner Ryan Lindgren, winger Jimmy Vesey, and unsigned prospect Hank Kempf from the Rangers in exchange for winger Juuso Parssinen, blueliner Calvin de Haan, and 2025 second- and fourth-round picks.  New York is retaining half of Lindgren’s $4.5MM cap charge in the move.  While Lindgren is in the middle of a down season, he has a track record of being a quality defensive defender which should give Colorado a boost at the fourth or fifth slot on their blueline.  Vesey also is a more experienced option for an Avalanche fourth line that has undergone plenty of turnover this season.  As for New York, they add two more draft picks to the fold and a look at Parssinen, a 24-year-old who had 25 points in Nashville in 45 games just two seasons ago, to see if he can be part of their longer-term plans.

Photo courtesy of Imagn Images.

The 4 Nations Face-Off has hit the halfway mark and with there being no NHL games on the slate, it was a relatively quiet week around the hockey world aside from the four tournament games.  Nonetheless, there was still some news of note which is recapped in our key stories.

More International Hockey: We saw the return of best-on-best hockey (at least for four countries) with the 4 Nations tournament and there will be another event next year with the Olympics.  Another tournament has been added to the calendar as the World Cup of Hockey will make its return in 2028.  The last time this was played was back in 2016 with Canada taking the best-of-three series over Team Europe to win the title.  As is the case with the 4 Nations Face-Off, this event will not fall under the IIHF’s umbrella while it remains to be seen if Russia, who has been excluded from international events in recent years, will be allowed to participate in this one.

Extension For Steel: While transaction activity has been extremely limited over the past week, the Stars took care of one of their pending unrestricted free agents, signing center Sam Steel to a two-year, $4.2MM extension.  The 27-year-old is in his second season in Dallas, returning despite being non-tendered last summer.  Steel hasn’t been able to come close to replicating the type of offensive success that he had at the junior level but he has turned into a reliable checker; he leads all Stars forwards in ATOI shorthanded.  The deal represents a nice raise for the 27-year-old as he will go from making $1.2MM this season to an AAV of $2.1MM for next year.

Theodore Exits 4 Nations: Golden Knights defenseman Shea Theodore was pegged to play a significant role for Canada at the 4 Nations Face-Off.  However, his tournament lasted only a handful of shifts as he suffered an upper-body injury in the opener and was quickly ruled out for the rest of the event.  Subsequently, Vegas announced that the blueliner is expected to be out on a week-to-week basis.  The 29-year-old sits fourth among all NHL rearguards in scoring with 48 points in 55 games while averaging over 22 minutes.  His exit comes on the heels of Vegas teammate Alex Pietrangelo withdrawing from the tournament to nurse a nagging injury as the Golden Knights will be dealing with a banged-up back end when the season resumes this coming weekend.  Theodore’s absence resulted in Dallas defender Thomas Harley being put on standby to join the team, something that has since happened with Cale Makar battling an illness.

Calling It A Career: Long-time NHL winger Loui Eriksson has called it a career, announcing his retirement at the age of 39.  Eriksson played in 16 seasons at the top level with four different organizations, spanning 1,050 games altogether.  He picked up 253 goals and 360 assists over that time with his best years coming between 2009-10 and 2011-12 with Dallas where he notched at least 71 points in each of those three seasons.  Eriksson also finished in the top five in Lady Byng Trophy voting three times.  After his final NHL campaign in 2021-22, he wrapped up his playing career with Frolunda in the SHL, returning to the program he came up with in his junior days.

Dobson Changes Agents: Islanders defenseman Noah Dobson has been talked about a lot lately.  There was recent trade speculation which was quickly refuted but not long after that, he changed agencies, moving to Wasserman.  Speculatively, the change likely doesn’t relate to the trade speculation but rather to the fact he has a contract negotiation on the horizon.  The 25-year-old had a breakout year last season, tallying 70 points in 79 games while logging 24:31 per night.  He hasn’t been producing at quite the same pace this year though but either way, he’s in for a substantial raise from the $4MM he’s receiving this season.  With arbitration rights, Dobson is in line to more than double that on his next deal, one that will have a new agent working on it.

Photo courtesy of Imagn Images.

Regular season action halted this evening as the league shifted its focus to the 4 Nations Face-Off. Trading dropped significantly compared to last week, but there was no lack of speculation. The league’s 32 general managers will have two weeks off to discuss trades before the regular season resumes on February 22nd. Let’s review some of the key stories from the week before turning our attention to the international best-on-best tournament.

Quick Extension For Pettersson: The Vancouver Canucks are once again in the headlines this week after making a pair of trades last week. They moved quickly on one of the players acquired from the Pittsburgh Penguins in last week’s flurry of moves, signing defenseman Marcus Pettersson to a six-year, $33MM extension. The native of Skelleftea, Sweden now has the second-longest active contract on the Canucks’ blue line behind Filip Hronek despite having only played four games. Of course, it shouldn’t be considered a hasty extension given Patrik Allvin and Jim Rutherford’s familiarity with Pettersson dating back to their time in the Penguins organization.

Avs Still Looking To Deal: Despite connecting on the biggest in-season trade in recent memory, the Colorado Avalanche are reportedly still open for business. Multiple reports earlier in the week asserted the Avalanche were one of the teams to propose a trade to the Canucks for J.T. Miller before he ultimately went to the New York Rangers. The trade proposal did not persuade Vancouver away from their eventual deal with the Rangers. However, reports indicated the Avalanche were willing to trade Casey Mittelstadt in the proposal and remain open to moving him for a difference-maker. Aside from adding to their forward core, an additional report linked Colorado to San Jose Sharks defenseman Mario Ferraro.

Center Trade Market Heating Up: As the deadline season approaches, there is a strong market for rental centers, and those with multiple years remaining on their contracts are also attracting interest. Dylan Cozens of the Buffalo Sabres has six years and $42.6MM left on his contract and has been in the rumor mill for much of the regular season. On Wednesday, Kevin Weekes from ESPN confirmed that the market for Cozens has specifically picked up with the Detroit Red Wings, Montreal Canadiens, and Toronto Maple Leafs. Cozens wasn’t the only one as TSN’s Darren Dreger shared his belief that the St. Louis Blues are gauging interest in captain Brayden Schenn. The former Stanley Cup champion may prove more difficult to move with four years and $26MM remaining on his deal with a 15-team no-trade clause.

Hughes Out, Sanderson In For Team USA: A fear has become a reality for Team USA heading into the 4 Nations Face-Off. The Canucks shared this afternoon that defenseman Quinn Hughes has withdrawn himself from Team USA’s roster due to a nagging hand injury. As much as Hughes would have liked to participate in the best-on-best tournament, he’s putting his energy toward helping Vancouver compete for a spot in the Stanley Cup playoffs. Replacing Hughes on the roster will be Ottawa’s Jake Sanderson, who suited up in one game for the United States during the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, China.

Ten For Hartman: The NHL’s Department of Player Safety got involved in the news this week bestowing a whopping 10-game suspension on Minnesota Wild forward Ryan Hartman for roughing Senators’ forward Tim Stützle. Hartman has a history of supplemental discipline throughout his career, leading to a lengthy suspension, but revealed a few days later that he will be appealing the decision. Should commissioner Gary Bettman uphold the suspension, it will be the longest since Radko Gudas, with the Philadelphia Flyers, was suspended for an identical length for slashing Winnipeg Jets’ forward Mathieu Perreault in the neck.

Photo courtesy of USA Sports Images. 

While the trade deadline is still more than a month away, there was still a flurry of activity around the NHL including Brandon Saad walking away from more than $5MM from St. Louis to sign for much less with Vegas.  While that move was newsworthy in itself, it wasn’t enough to land a spot in this week’s key stories.

Flyers/Flames Swap: The first notable trade of the week came from the Flyers and Flames.  Center Morgan Frost and winger Joel Farabee had been in trade speculation for quite a while and the two were dealt together to Calgary for wingers Andrei Kuzmenko and Jakob Pelletier, Calgary’s 2025 second-round pick, and the Flames’ 2028 seventh-rounder.  The Flames had long been seeking a longer-term piece down the middle and get that in Frost who has two years of team control remaining.  Farabee, meanwhile, has struggled this year and has a $5MM cap charge through 2027-28 and Calgary is picking up the full freight of the contract while hoping they can get him going again.  Clearing that contract appears to be the impetus for the move as Kuzmenko is on an expiring contract and is struggling mightily while Pelletier cleared waivers earlier in the season but was playing well before the swap.  The move gives them much more flexibility on the salary cap that they’ll look to put to use this summer.

Salary Cap News: For the past few weeks, there was plenty of speculation that the NHL and NHLPA would like to release salary cap projections for a year or two ahead of schedule.  They wound up doing one better, announcing that the 2025-26 cap will be $95.5MM while projecting that the Upper Limits for 2026-27 and 2027-28 will be approximately $104MM and $113.5MM, respectively, subject to minor revisions.  That results in roughly a 9% increase per season to the cap.  Meanwhile, the spending minimums will also go up, moving to $70.6MM in 2025-26, $76.9MM in 2026-27, and $83.9MM in 2027-28 (again, subject to any minor revisions).  The CBA is set to expire after the 2025-26 campaign so the fact these numbers are coming out early could be construed as a positive sign while teams will now be able to better project their spending flexibility for the next three years.

Canucks Make Moves: With the rift between Elias Pettersson and J.T. Miller being too much to overcome, Vancouver finally found a suitable trade, sending Miller along with defensemen Erik Brannstrom and Jackson Dorrington to the Rangers for center Filip Chytil, blueliner Victor Mancini, and a protected 2025 first-round pick.  Miller returns to the team that he started his career with and gives New York three veteran centers signed through at least the 2028-29 campaign, joining Mika Zibanejad and Vincent Trocheck.  For Vancouver, they get some long-term cap flexibility with Chytil only being signed through 2026-27 while also opening up some extra spending room for this year.  That, coupled with the draft pick, played a role in deal number two.

That move came only a few hours after the Miller one as Vancouver flipped the draft pick along with defenseman Vincent Desharnais and wingers Danton Heinen and Melvin Fernstrom to Pittsburgh for blueliner Marcus Pettersson and winger Drew O’Connor.  Pettersson is a strong upgrade on Vancouver’s back end while O’Connor is an improvement in their bottom six up front.  However, both players are pending unrestricted free agents although it wouldn’t be surprising to see the Canucks take a run at extending them according to Thomas Drance of The Athletic (subscription link).  Pittsburgh does well to pick up a first-round pick for two expiring contracts though it involves taking on $4.25MM in contracts for next season with Desharnais and Heinen both having an extra year on their deals.  Meanwhile, for the time being at least, the Canucks have even more long-term cap flexibility at their disposal.

One Signed, One To Go? The Capitals entered the week with their bargain goalie tandem heading for unrestricted free agency in July.  They ended it with Logan Thompson signed for the long haul as the team signed him to a six-year, $35.1MM extension that will carry a $5.85MM cap charge and a partial no-trade clause.  The 27-year-old has been stellar this season with a 2.15 GAA and a .924 SV% in 29 games so far and is on quite a bargain deal at the moment as his cap charge is the lowest in the entire league, below the minimum salary.  Meanwhile, Charlie Lindgren remains unsigned but that might not be the case for long following a report that the two sides are working on an extension that would drive his price up to between $3.5MM and $4MM.  Washington’s goalie tandem costs less than $2MM this season but that will be changing soon enough.

Stars Add Two Veterans: Following a long-term injury to defenseman Miro Heiskanen and season-ending surgery for blueliner Nils Lundkvist, the Stars decided to make a splash of their own on the trade market.  Following a series of transactions that locked them into using LTIR, they acquired center Mikael Granlund and rearguard Cody Ceci from San Jose for their 2025 first-round pick and Winnipeg’s 2025 fourth-round selection (which would elevate to Dallas’ third-rounder if they make the Stanley Cup Final.  Granlund was San Jose’s top point-getter this season and while he won’t be a top-liner with the Stars, he’ll deepen their center group with Tyler Seguin (hip) expected to be out until the playoffs.  Meanwhile, Ceci is a minute-eating second-pairing player who should help take off some pressure until Heiskanen returns.  San Jose takes arguably its most prominent rentals and packages them together but in doing so, they land another first-round pick as their extended rebuild continues.  Considering they signed Granlund as a short-term reclamation project in 2023 and took on Ceci as a cap dump from Edmonton, getting a first-rounder is a solid piece of business for the Sharks.

Photo courtesy of Imagn Images.

While the trade deadline is still several weeks away, that didn’t stop a trio of teams from combining on one of the biggest trades we’ve seen in the NHL in quite some time.  That’s among the news headlined in our key stories.

Back In The NHL: After he didn’t get a contract over the summer, it looked like Tony DeAngelo’s time in the NHL may have come to an end.  But after his request to be released from his KHL team was granted, he quickly resurfaced, signing a one-year deal worth the league minimum with the Islanders.  DeAngelo subsequently cleared the rarely-seen entry waivers to officially join the team.  The 29-year-old has been a productive blueliner over his career with 210 points in 372 games but hasn’t been able to stay in one spot for long as the Isles are now his fifth different NHL team in as many seasons.  He was quickly put to work, logging more than 25 minutes in his season debut on Saturday.

Three Games For Two: The end of last Saturday’s Canucks-Oilers game got a little chippy and a pair of players had the week off as a result of match penalties received in the final minute.  The Department of Player Safety handed three-game suspensions to Oilers center Connor McDavid and Canucks defenseman Tyler Myers for cross-checking.  It’s the second suspension of McDavid’s career as he received a two-game ban back in 2019 for a check to the head.  Meanwhile, it’s the third sit-down for Myers who had a three-game suspension in 2012 for a boarding incident and then received another three-gamer two years later for a hit to the head.

Three-Team Swap: The Hurricanes decided to strike early with their shopping, adding a pair of wingers in a three-team trade.  They acquired Taylor Hall, Mikko Rantanen, and prospect Nils Juntorp while Colorado picked up Martin Necas, Jack Drury, a 2025 second-round pick, and a 2025 fourth-round selection.  Chicago, meanwhile, reacquired their 2025 third-round pick from Carolina while retaining half of Rantanen’s $9.25MM AAV to facilitate the swap.

For Carolina, they add one of the premier wingers in the league in Rantanen plus a serviceable piece in Hall who helps deepen their attack.  Both players are on expiring contracts whereas Necas and Drury are signed through next year (while Drury has two more years of club control).  That last part helps justify the trade for Colorado who opens up a bit of cap space, acquires a top-line piece for Rantanen, and gives them some more cost certainty heading into next summer.  Rantanen is expected to set an NHL record on his next contract as the richest winger in NHL history and he and the Avs weren’t able to come to terms of that agreement, resulting in them getting a guaranteed return over running the risk of losing him for nothing.  As for Chicago, the belief is that they got a slightly higher draft pick by retaining on Rantanen than they would have by retaining on Hall although their portion of the swap is still a bit underwhelming.

Markstrom Out For A While: After a disappointing 2023-24 season, the Devils find themselves in a top-three seed in the Metropolitan Division.  Goaltender Jacob Markstrom has played a big role in that but New Jersey will have to do without him for a while as he’s set to miss the next four to six weeks with a knee sprain.  The 34-year-old has a 2.20 GAA (fifth-lowest in the NHL) with a .912 SV% in 36 starts.  Veteran Jake Allen will take over as the starter in the interim while Nico Daws is expected to be recalled in the coming days to serve as the backup.  Markstrom will now miss the upcoming 4 Nations Face-Off but the extended break will also reduce how many games he winds up missing.

Five For Borgen: Last month, the Rangers acquired defenseman Will Borgen along with a pair of draft picks in exchange for winger Kaapo Kakko.  Borgen was set to be an unrestricted free agent but he clearly made a strong impression on his new team as New York inked him to a five-year, $20.5MM extension.  The 28-year-old had two straight seasons of at least 20 points coming into this season but he has been limited to just five in 50 games between the two teams in 2024-25.  The Rangers are banking on his track record and his early performance with his new club and have made him a key cog of their back end for the foreseeable future.

Photo courtesy of Imagn Images.

Now past the halfway point of the season, the playoff race is truly beginning to take form and deadline rumors are starting to simmer. Some of those notes, along with some notable mid-season injuries, are in our top stories from the last week.

Tavares On The Shelf: Maple Leafs star center John Tavares took a weird fall in practice on Wednesday and hasn’t played since. He landed on injured reserve the next day and will miss at least two more games on top of the two he’s already missed with his right leg injury. He was ruled out week-to-week, so it could be more games than that until Toronto gets their third-leading scorer back in the lineup. Tavares has 20 goals and 42 points in 44 games this season after falling to a 0.81 point-per-game rate in 2023-24.

Jarry To The Farm: Penguins goaltender Tristan Jarry’s stock has gone from bad to worse in the second season of his five-year, $26.88MM extension. His .884 SV% through 22 games was enough for the Penguins to risk losing him on waivers, and after no one wanted to pick up the remainder of his deal, he passed through and headed to AHL Wilkes-Barre/Scranton for his first extended taste of minor-league play in six years. Jarry did have a sparkling .926 SV% and 4-1-0 record in five appearances for WBS earlier this season on a conditioning loan. Still, the four-time 20-win-getter has failed to convert that momentum into passable play as Pittsburgh’s starter.

Freddie’s Back: After yet another lengthy absence, Hurricanes goaltender Frederik Andersen returned to the lineup this week. He’d been sidelined since late October with a knee issue that ended up requiring surgery in November. He hasn’t played since coming off injured reserve on Friday but could get the nod Monday when Carolina visits the league-worst Blackhawks. Andersen had a .941 SV% in four appearances to begin the season.

Klingberg To The Oilers: After sitting injured for over a calendar year, defenseman John Klingberg is back in the NHL after signing a one-year, $1.35MM pact with the Oilers on Friday. Klingberg, 32, spent last season on a one-year deal with the Maple Leafs but only recorded five assists in 14 games before hip resurfacing surgery ended his campaign. The 2014-15 All-Rookie Team member and six-time 40-point scorer will look to bring his power-play prowess to a weak-ish right side of the Edmonton blue line. He hasn’t hit that 40-point mark since leaving the Stars for the Ducks in the 2022 offseason, however.

Miller Almost Dealt: The simmering trade saga between the Canucks and star center J.T. Miller almost came to a head Saturday night when a reported trade to the Rangers fell through at the last minute, Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet said. Instead, he skated over 20 minutes – his most in nearly a month – and had a pair of assists as Vancouver upset the Oilers 3-2. Friedman added that while a trade to the Blueshirts hasn’t yet materialized, he believes the Canucks have granted Miller, who carries a full no-move clause, permission to speak to other teams to facilitate a deal. The 31-year-old is in year two of a seven-year, $56MM extension and has 31 points through 35 games, tracking for his first sub-point-per-game season since 2020-21.

Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.

The turning of the calendar to 2025 created a long list of players who are now eligible for extensions, a couple of which already have already done so.  Those new deals aren’t in our key stories but some other recently-signed contracts are in our top stories from the last seven days.

Three For L’Heureux: Predators winger Zachary L’Heureux received a three-game suspension from the Department of Player Safety for his slew foot on Wild defenseman Jared Spurgeon; the blueliner hasn’t played since then due to a leg injury.  It’s the first NHL suspension of his career with the 21-year-old in his first taste of NHL action.  However, L’Heureux has a long suspension history with two separate bans last season in the minors and nine more in the QMJHL.  He has nine points and 106 hits in 33 games so far this season and will be eligible to return to the lineup on Saturday.

Three For Kastelic: Bruins center Mark Kastelic wasn’t the most prominent piece going to Boston in last offseason’s Linus Ullmark trade but he has made a positive impact for them.  He was rewarded for his efforts with a three-year, $4.7MM contract extension.  The deal gives Boston two extra years of club control and buys out his final year of arbitration.  Kastelic has already equaled his career high in points with 11 and has set a new personal best in assists with seven in his first 40 games with the Bruins.  He also leads the team in hits with 154 and is winning nearly 55% of his faceoffs.

Toews Not Ruling Out A Comeback: While Jonathan Toews hasn’t played since the 2022-23 season as he continues to battle through Chronic Inflammatory Response Syndrome, he never officially announced his retirement.  This past week, he indicated that he still has the desire to play in the NHL and is going to give it his best shot in terms of trying to make a comeback.  The 36-year-old has played in 1,067 career NHL games over parts of 16 seasons, all with Chicago, becoming a premier two-way pivot along the way.  If he decides to try to play this season, it stands to reason that it would be in a limited role given how long he has been off.  Alternatively, he could look to catch on somewhere for 2025-26, giving himself a longer window to train and potentially a larger pool of suitors for his services.

Three For Vatrano: Frank Vatrano won’t be leaving the Ducks for a while now.  The winger has signed a three-year, $18MM contract extension, one that further pushes the boundaries of deferred salary.  Vatrano will make $3MM in each of the three years of the contract, then receive $900K for ten years beginning in 2035.  In doing so, the cap charge of the deal drops to $4.67MM (based on the net present value) instead of the $6MM average.  It’s interesting that Anaheim, a team that isn’t remotely close to the Upper Limit of the salary cap, is taking this route but it clearly helped them get this contract done.  Vatrano is struggling a bit this season with nine goals and 20 points in 37 games but is only a year removed from 37 goals and 60 points which undoubtedly played a big role in securing this contract.

Canucks Listening On Top Forwards: Amidst speculation that top forwards Elias Pettersson and J.T. Miller have a rift and the fact both players are struggling, the Canucks appear to be open to listening to offers for both of them.  Pettersson is in the first season of his max-term deal that will see him make $11.6MM per year through the 2031-32 campaign but he hasn’t lived up to the contract early on.  After putting up 102 points in 2022-23, he dipped to 89 points last year and has 28 points in 34 games this year.  Miller, meanwhile, had a career year last season with 103 points but has just six goals in 28 contests this season and his only two goals since October have been empty-netters.  With them scuffling, Vancouver is narrowly holding onto the final Wild Card spot so it appears management is open to a bigger shakeup to get the team going.

Photo courtesy of Imagn Images.

Generally speaking, the week leading up to the roster freeze (a freeze that still allows for a lot of roster movement) in the NHL isn’t particularly busy.  That wasn’t the case as there was plenty of news of note across the league which is recapped in our key stories.

Johnson Released: Veteran Tyler Johnson was patient while waiting for his opportunity to play in Boston as his preseason PTO extended nearly a month before he inked a one-year, $775K contract.  However, his time with the Bruins was short-lived.  After getting into just nine games with them, Johnson and the team mutually agreed to terminate his contract and after he cleared unconditional waivers, he became a free agent.  A veteran of 747 career games at the NHL level, Johnson is hoping to still play in the NHL and intends to speak to teams after the holiday break.  Speculatively, considering he was on a league minimum deal and no one claimed him, this could be a situation where he needs to wait for an injury or until closer to the trade deadline in March before inking another deal.

Key Injuries: Maple Leafs goaltender Anthony Stolarz was off to a strong start to his first season in Toronto with a 2.15 GAA and a .927 SV% in his first 17 games.  However, he had to undergo knee surgery that will keep him out of the lineup for the next four to six weeks, meaning Joseph Woll will be the undisputed starter for a while.  Meanwhile, the Lightning won’t have blueliner J.J. Moser available to them for at least the next two months due to a lower-body injury.  Acquired as part of the Mikhail Sergachev trade, Moser has 10 points in 27 games while logging nearly 20 minutes a night on their back end.  Lastly, Sabres winger Jordan Greenway is set to undergo mid-body surgery that will keep him out long-term although he’s expected back before the end of the season.  Greenway was doing relatively well when healthy with seven points and 54 hits in 20 games but an extended absence won’t help his cause as he heads toward UFA eligibility for the first time in July.

Kakko To Kraken: After being made a healthy scratch last weekend by the Rangers, winger Kaapo Kakko expressed some frustration with the situation.  Soon after, New York moved the 2019 second-overall pick to Seattle in exchange for defenseman William Borgen plus a 2025 third-round pick and a 2025 sixth-rounder.  Kakko had a career-best 40 points last season but the Rangers weren’t ready to commit a long-term deal to him, instead giving him a one-year, $2.4MM deal for this year, avoiding arbitration.  He’ll hope for a strong second half with the Kraken that could help him earn that long-term commitment.  Meanwhile, Borgen will help replace some of the physicality that Jacob Trouba used to provide but he’s eligible for unrestricted free agency next summer.  The move is more of a win-now one for a Rangers team who has plummeted down the standings in recent weeks and it’s possible one or both of the draft picks they landed could be flipped in the coming weeks.

Eight For Rempe: With Kakko being traded, the Rangers used his roster spot up front to bring back Matt Rempe from AHL Hartford.  However, he wound up getting ejected in his first game back with the big club following a hit on Dallas blueliner Miro Heiskanen.  The hit drew the ire of the Department of Player Safety who handed Rempe an eight-game suspension.  Rempe has been ejected four times in his first 22 regular season games and this is the second suspension of his young career.  As he’s considered a repeat offender, the financial cost is considerably higher; he’ll forfeit $80K in salary for the infraction.  As it’s greater than five games, Rempe has the right to appeal this suspension but won’t be eligible to play during any potential appeal process.

Swapping Blueliners: The Canadiens and Predators swapped right-shot defenseman with Montreal picking up Alexandre Carrier in exchange for Justin Barron.  Carrier was off to a bit of a tough start to his season but played well enough to earn a three-year, $10.25MM deal last summer, one the Canadiens will absorb in full.  Barron, meanwhile, is a former first-round pick who was unable to secure a full-time spot on Montreal’s blueline.  He has another year left after this one at a $1.15MM price tag, giving Nashville $2.6MM in cap savings this season and next with the move and they’ll hope to help him reach his potential.  Meanwhile, the Canadiens add some experience to a young back end while giving them some insurance should they choose to move David Savard closer to the trade deadline.

Photo courtesy of Imagn Images.