Week In Review

This was a rough week around the NHL when it came to injuries as several prominent players are out long-term.  Those are highlighted in the top stories of the week.

Schultz Out Four Months: The Penguins will be without defenseman Justin Schultz for the next four months after he underwent surgery to repair a fracture in his left leg.  The injury was sustained back on October 13th against Montreal.  He’s a key cog on their back end but it doesn’t appear as if there are any plans to replace him externally for now with GM Jim Rutherford indicating that their current plan is to try to fill his spot from within.  Considering he is one of their better offensive threats and typically logs nearly 20 minutes a night for them, that’s going to be a tall task.

Ritchie Signs: The number of remaining restricted free agents around the league was cut in half after the Ducks and winger Nick Ritchie agreed to terms on a three-year, $4.6MM deal.  Ritchie was believed to be seeking a one-year pact but Anaheim wanted the three-year pact to give them some cost certainty.  It will still take a bit of time before he suits up as he has to get his immigration paperwork in place as well as get his conditioning up to playing shape.

Matheson Gets Two: Following his controversial throw down of Canucks center Elias Pettersson last weekend, the NHL suspended Panthers defenseman Michael Matheson for two games.  Those games were served during the week while Pettersson is currently in concussion protocol but isn’t expected to miss much more time.

Tuch Locked Up: The Golden Knights continue to lock up their core youngsters.  After inking defenseman Shea Theodore to a seven-year contract last month, they did the same with winger Alex Tuch on a deal that will carry an AAV of $4.75MM and a five-team no-trade clause in the final three years of the contract.  The 22-year-old has yet to play this season as he works his way from a lower-body injury and has just 84 career regular season games under his belt.  Tuch is coming off of a 37-point rookie campaign and still has plenty of upside so while there is certainly some risk to the deal given his limited experience, there is also a chance that this becomes a team-friendly contract over the next few years.

More Injuries: Schultz was hardly the only notable injury around the league.  Vegas will be without their top free agent acquisition in center Paul Stastny for up to two months due to a lower-body injury which certainly isn’t good news for an offense that is struggling to score.  Meanwhile, Coyotes pivot Christian Dvorak suffered a torn pectoral muscle while rehabbing the lower-body injury that held him out of training camp.  He has undergone surgery and is out indefinitely.  Meanwhile, even prospects were bit by the injury bug.  Ottawa winger Brady Tkachuk has seen his strong start to his rookie campaign delayed by a month due to a torn ligament in his left leg while Red Wings prospect winger Evgeny Svechnikov (a first-round pick in 2015) will miss five-to-six months due to a torn ACL.

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While it was a quiet week around the league on the transaction front, there was still some notable news which is highlighted in our top stories of the week.

Cap Range For Next Season: The preliminary range for the Upper Limit of the salary cap for next season is now available and it runs from $81.4MM to $85.4MM depending on how much of the annual inflator the NHLPA chooses to use.  In the past, the inflator was used at the maximum five percent but in recent years, it has been reduced in order to try to limit escrow.  Even at the low end, that would still represent a jump of nearly $2MM on the current Upper Limit and with a few teams projected to be capped out, every little bit will count.

Wilson Gets Non-Roster Status: While this largely flew under the radar, the NHL granted suspended Capitals forward Tom Wilson non-roster status.  This allows Washington to essentially replace Wilson on the active roster without him counting against the 23-player limit.  This is granted on a case-by-case basis by Commissioner Gary Bettman but rarely is it granted for suspended players.  For comparison, Vegas defenseman Nate Schmidt is also on a 20-game suspension but has not been granted non-roster status.  This has the potential to be a precedent setter and it will be interesting to see if other teams petition the league for similar treatment for their players as the season progresses.  Meanwhile, Wilson’s appeal will be heard by Bettman this coming Thursday.

Nash Still Undecided About Future: Rick Nash was slated to be one of the more notable players available in free agency back in July but withdrew himself from consideration, citing he was undecided about playing this season.  While there was some speculation that the 34-year-old was about to retire, he indicated that he remains undecided about playing or not, adding that he is still dealing with the side effects from his latest concussion.  If he does decide to play, he’ll have to be on an NHL roster by the trade deadline in February.

Van Riemsdyk Injured: The Flyers will be without their key offseason addition for more than a month as winger James van Riemsdyk will miss five-to-six weeks with a lower-body issue.  The injury was sustained last Saturday against Colorado.  That’s not the start that the veteran was hoping for to kick off his second stint with the organization that initially drafted him second overall back in 2007.  Injuries have hit Philadelphia early as goalie Michal Neuvirth and center Nolan Patrick are also on the shelf.

Watson’s Suspension Reduced: The NHLPA’s appeal of Predators winger Austin Watson’s suspension for a domestic violence incident yielded a sizable reduction in his punishment.  Instead of missing the first 27 games of the season, he will now miss the opening 18 games of the season.  That means that Watson will be eligible to return in just over a month from now on November 15th against Arizona.  The NHL released a statement expressing their disappointment in the arbitrator’s decision but they are not able to change it.

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The beginning of the 2018-19 season led to an uptick of news around the league.  Here are the top stories from the past seven days.

Retirements: A pair of long-time NHL veterans officially hung up their skates as winger Scott Hartnell announced his retirement on Monday and hours later, winger Radim Vrbata did the same.  Hartnell spent 17 seasons in the NHL with Nashville, Columbus, and Philadelphia, recording 707 points while being one of the more prominent power forwards in the league in his prime.  Vrbata bounced around a lot more in his 16 years, spending time with seven different organizations (including three separate stints with the Coyotes) but turned a seventh-round draft slot into a productive career as he picked up 623 points in 1,057 career regular season games.

Lee Discussing Long-Term Extension: After losing John Tavares for nothing over the summer, the Islanders are hoping to not see their top goal scorer follow a similar path.  Accordingly, they’ve started discussions on a long-term contract extension with the 28-year-old.  Lee very quietly has tallied the sixth-most goals of anyone in the league since 2016-17 and more than the likes of Sidney Crosby, Connor McDavid, and even Tavares himself.  That wasn’t the only notable story involving Lee, however, as the Islanders also named him as their new captain, replacing Tavares.  Accordingly, if they aren’t able to get a new deal done, they’ll be repeating that particular process one year from now.

Seattle Gets Expansion Recommendation: It was a very successful meeting with the league for the prospective NHL franchise from Seattle.  Following their sit down, the Board of Governors’ Executive Committee unanimously recommended continuing to move forward with their expansion application.  The target debut for the franchise is 2020-21, assuming they receive the required approval from the full board later.  Worth noting is that the Vegas Golden Knights will be exempted from losing a player in the Expansion Draft.  However, they will not be able to share the profits from Seattle’s $650MM expansion fee either.

More Captaincies: The Islanders weren’t the only team to name a captain this week.  Veteran blueliner Shea Weber received the nod in Montreal, taking over for Max Pacioretty who was dealt to Vegas last month.  He’ll have to wait a while to wear the ‘C’ in a game though as he’s out for at least the next two months following offseason knee surgery.  The fact he was named as their captain makes it less likely that the team will look to move Weber, even if they head further into a rebuilding situation.  Meanwhile, after going without a captain last season, the Sabres have decided on Jack Eichel for that honor.  Despite being just 21, he’s certainly an understandable choice given their commitment to him as he is in the first season of a new eight-year, $80MM contract.  Even with the three vacancies being filled around the league, there are still six teams without a captain this season.

Wilson Gets 20: Capitals winger Tom Wilson will be waiting quite a while to make his 2018-19 season debut.  Following a hit on Blues forward Oskar Sundqvist in their final exhibition game, the league handed the 24-year-old a 20-game suspension, one that carries a salary forfeiture of more than $1.26MM.  As things currently stand, he’s eligible to return to the lineup on November 21st.  However, Wilson and the NHLPA have filed an appeal which will be held by NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman at a later date.

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With the regular season now just a few days away, there was a small uptick in news around the league.  Here are the top stories from the past seven days.

Gionta Retires: Veteran winger Brian Gionta officially announced his retirement at the age of 39.  He will remain with the Sabres in a part-time capacity after working with them over the offseason.  Gionta suited up in 1,026 regular season games over parts of 16 seasons between New Jersey, Montreal, Buffalo, and Boston, where he spent the final quarter of last year after suiting up for Team USA at the Olympics.  His 595 career points rank 42nd all-time among American-born NHL players.

Successful Tryouts: The majority of players attending training camps on tryout deals have already been cut but there are a couple that managed to get themselves a contract.  The Islanders added some defensive depth by inking Luca Sbisa to a one-year, $1.5MM contract, a sizable price tag for someone that went to camp with a non-guaranteed deal.  Meanwhile, the Blackhawks locked up defenseman Brandon Davidson to a one-year pact worth the league minimum $650K.  There are still a handful of players left on PTOs and decisions will need to be made on their respective futures within the next day or two.

Perry Out Long-Term: Anaheim will be without one of their more prominent forwards for the next five months as winger Corey Perry underwent surgery to repair damage to his meniscus and MCL.  The 33-year-old is coming off of a quieter season but still ranked third on the Ducks in team scoring in 2017-18.  The Ducks are still dealing with Ryan Kesler and Patrick Eaves working their way back into playing form as well so there are quite a few slots to fill up front heading into the season.  Considering that they will be able to put Perry on LTIR to start the season if they want, it will be worth watching to see if they try to swing a deal for some short-term help after they get RFA Nick Ritchie signed.

Seven Years For Theodore: The Golden Knights were hoping to get defenseman Shea Theodore locked up long-term and they did just that, signing him to a seven-year, $36.4MM deal.  It’s not very often that someone with just 114 games of regular season experience gets that much money but the 23-year-old has quickly become one of their top defenders and many believe he still has another level he can get to.  Vegas will now likely shift their focus towards getting a long-term deal done with Nate Schmidt although that will likely take a while to get done as they’d be wise to wait until he gets back from his 20-game suspension to start the season.

Jones Out Four-To-Six Weeks: While the Blue Jackets got some good news on the injury front with Zach Werenski returning, they’ll be without their other top defenseman for a while as Seth Jones will miss four-to-six weeks due to a knee issue.  He’s coming off of a career year that saw him post 57 points in 78 games while finishing fourth in Norris Trophy voting so his absence will be tough to fill.  Columbus is still dealing with some other injuries on their back end as well with Ryan Murray and Scott Harrington banged up at the moment.

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While the past seven days did feature as many significant headlines as last week did, there were still some notable stories around the league.  Here are the top stories from the past seven days.

Bridge For Nurse: It took a lot longer than many expected but the Oilers gave defenseman Darnell Nurse a two-year bridge deal worth $6.4MM.  Given Edmonton’s salary cap situation that seems them now with less than $800K in cap room, this was always the anticipated outcome as locking him up long-term would have forced them to deal away someone else.  It’s worth noting that there is no back-loading in this contract as some players push for to yield a higher qualifying offer; instead, he’ll receive $3.2MM in each year with that amount serving as his qualifier in 2020.

Domi Gets Five: Max Domi’s first game in a Montreal uniform was a memorable one but for all the wrong reasons.  A punching incident involving Florida’s Aaron Ekblad in the third period of their preseason game resulted in him receiving a match penalty and after a hearing with the league, he was suspended for the remainder of the preseason.  The decision has received a lot of negativity with some suggesting getting a pass on the rest of the exhibition schedule ultimately is a reward to Domi and not any sort of deterrent for others moving forward.

More On Dotchin: Tampa Bay’s decision to terminate the final year of Jake Dotchin’s contract for a material breach citing poor conditioning caught many by surprise.  More information has started to come to light, suggesting he came in significantly overweight and with a very high BMI percentage.  It will certainly be interesting to see what Dotchin’s market around the league will be with this information coming out as it’s going to take a while for him to get into playing shape while the NHLPA still has to decide whether or not they want to grieve this case.

Bridge For Reinhart: Sam Reinhart was believed to be hoping for a long-term deal but he too had to settle for a short-term pact, inking a two-year, $7.3MM deal with Buffalo.  Last year was a tale of two separate seasons for him.  He was very slow out of the gate with just 20 points in his first 50 games but when the calendar flipped to February, he was much more productive, collecting 30 points in his final 32 contests.  It’s that type of inconsistency that likely played a role in Buffalo’s hesitance to commit a big-money, long-term pact at this stage.  Instead, he’ll look to show that his late-season play is a sign of things to come.  Reinhart will earn $3.55MM this season and $3.75MM in 2019-20 with the latter number representing his qualifier in the 2020 summer.

Four-Year Deals: While Nurse and Reinhart had to take bridge deals, that surprisingly wasn’t the case for Devils winger Miles Wood.  Despite having only 49 career points over 137 games, New Jersey signed him to a four-year, $2.75MM contract, buying out the majority of his remaining RFA years.  The 23-year-old had a breakout campaign in 2017-18 with 19 goals in 76 games and if he can repeat that production moving forward, New Jersey will have a bargain deal on their books.  Meanwhile, Montreal winger Paul Byron has gone from potential trade bait to part of the long-term plans after he put pen to paper on a four-year, $13.6MM extension.  He has turned into one of the top waiver claims in recent years and has scored at least 20 goals in each of the last two seasons.  Byron will play out the upcoming campaign on his existing deal that carries a cap hit of just $1.167MM.

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The start of training camps usually makes for a busy week around the NHL and this was certainly no exception.  Here are the top stories from what was a headline-filled seven days around the league.

Pacioretty Dealt To Vegas: The trade rumors had been swirling around winger Max Pacioretty for quite some time and it had been reported previously that Montreal had no intention of re-signing him which made a trade a foregone conclusion.  That came to fruition as he was moved to the Golden Knights in exchange for winger Tomas Tatar, 2017 first-round pick Nick Suzuki, and a 2019 second-round pick.  Shortly after the swap was announced, he inked a four-year, $28MM extension.  His $7MM AAV is significantly higher than his current $4.5MM cap hit.

End Of The Road For Zetterberg: While it had been speculated for a while that it was unlikely that Red Wings captain Henrik Zetterberg would play in 2018-19, the team took it one step further, announcing that his playing days are over.  The 37-year-old played through considerable back pain last season and had been unable to train at all this summer.  He wraps up his NHL career with 960 points in 1,082 games, all with Detroit.  Zetterberg still has three years remaining on his contract with a $6.083MM cap hit (but salaries of just $3.35MM and two years at $1MM) so instead of retiring, he will instead spend the next three seasons on LTIR.

Extension For Seguin: Stars center Tyler Seguin had expressed disappointment recently regarding the last of progress made on contract talks but that seemed to get the ball rolling on them.  He’ll be sticking around for the long haul now after signing an eight-year, $78.8MM extension.  The $9.85MM cap hit makes him the seventh highest-paid forward league-wide for 2019-20 and beyond.  Dallas had one of the more exciting lines in the league last season when they put their big three (which also features Jamie Benn and Alexander Radulov) together and they now have that trio locked up through 2021-22 at a combined cap hit of $25.6MM.

Karlsson To San Jose: Defenseman Erik Karlsson had been in trade speculation for a while with Dallas, Tampa Bay, and Vegas the presumptive favorites to land him.  In the end, it was the Sharks that landed the Swedish star, acquiring him for a lengthy list of players and picks.  Among the notables going the other way to Ottawa are center Chris Tierney, prospect center Josh Norris, and one guaranteed first-round pick plus two others with plenty of conditions on them.  There is no extension in place for Karlsson at the moment but with a little more than $20MM in expiring contracts on the books, San Jose should have the ability to re-sign him if they’re willing to spend that much on their back end.  Meanwhile, this further cements the idea that the Senators are in a rebuilding process which should be great news for Colorado as they hold Ottawa’s unprotected first-round pick in 2019.

Yzerman Resigns: In a move that caught the hockey world by surprise, Steve Yzerman resigned as GM of Tampa Bay after holding the position for a little over eight years.  He cited family reasons as the reason for his decision as they remain in Detroit.  The 53-year-old will remain with the club as an advisor to new GM Julien BriseBois for the final year of his contract and has yet to decide on his future after that.  Speculation has already run rampant that he could be in line to take the GM job with the Red Wings once his deal with the Lightning expires but nothing is set in stone just yet.

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With preseason hockey set to kick off shortly, activity has started to pick up around the league.  Here’s an overview of the top stories of the past week.

Pacioretty Sets Extension Deadline: Canadiens captain Max Pacioretty has been at the forefront of the rumor mill in recent months with his eventual departure seeming like a foregone conclusion at this point.  While an extension with Montreal appears to be out of the question, Pacioretty indicated that he won’t negotiate a new deal with any team once the regular season gets underway on October 3rd.  It will certainly be worth watching to see if that deadline helps spur trade talks involving the winger.

Latest On Seattle: While representatives from Seattle’s ownership group (which was just bolstered by new minority investors) will be meeting with the NHL in October, their potential expansion franchise won’t be voted on at that time by the Board of Governors.  It’s not a given that it will be on the agenda for their December meeting either.  Shortly after that came out, it was noted that construction on the prospective arena won’t begin until a franchise is officially granted.  While this isn’t likely to ultimately quash things, it could certainly delay when the team enters the league.  Instead of 2020-21, the most realistic option now appears to be that they will start in 2021-22 at the earliest.

Jets Lock Up Wheeler: Winnipeg entered the summer with several core players entering the final year of their respective contracts and it was only a matter of time before they started to address that.  They got the ball rolling by signing winger Blake Wheeler to a five-year, $41.25MM extension ($8.25MM AAV).  That represents a significant raise on his current deal which carries a $5.6MM cap charge.  While the deal locks up Wheeler through his age-37 season which is a little risky, the captain has very quietly been one of the more productive players in the league in recent years; only four players have more points than Wheeler does over the past three seasons.

Kelly Retires, Rejoins Senators: Long-time checking center Chris Kelly split last season between the AHL, the NHL, and Canada’s Olympic team, has called it a career at the age of 37.  The veteran played in 845 career NHL games over parts of 14 seasons, collecting 291 points along the way.  His post-playing days have already started as he has signed on with Ottawa as a player development coach.  The bulk of Kelly’s playing career game with the Senators after being drafted by the team back in 1999.

Seguin Extension Talks: After previously declaring his disappointment with the fact he has yet to sign a contract extension, talks have picked up in recent days between center Tyler Seguin and the Stars.  GM Jim Nill expressed that he’s hopeful a deal can be reached in time for the start of the season.  If they can’t come to terms, Seguin projects to be the top unrestricted free agent forward in July and could follow a process quite similar to the one that John Tavares went through this summer.  It will be interesting to see if Jamie Benn’s $9.5MM AAV represents an internal cap on an offer to Seguin or if they’re willing to pass that mark to get the 26-year-old locked up.

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This past week represented what is likely to be the calm before the storm as activity around the league should pick up with training camps on the horizon.  Despite there, there was still some notable news around the hockey world over the past seven days.

Oilers Ink Jerabek: With Andrej Sekera out long-term due to a torn Achilles tendon, Edmonton wasted little time adding to their defensive depth on the left side as they signed Jakub Jerabek to a one-year, $1MM contract.  The 27-year-old just finished his first season in North America and split the year between the AHL, Montreal, and Washington.  He played a very limited role with the Caps in their Stanley Cup run as he suited up just twice in the postseason.  Jerabek won’t be able to take on a 20-minute role in Edmonton but his ability to move the puck should be an asset to their back end.

Enstrom Heads Home: Defenseman Toby Enstrom was one of the more intriguing defensemen remaining on the open market.  Instead of joining another NHL team, the veteran chose to head home, signing a one-year deal with MODO of the Swedish Allsvenskan, a second-division team.  In doing so, the 33-year-old returns to the program he played with for parts of eight seasons before crossing the pond to head to the NHL.  If this is the end of the road in the NHL for Enstrom, he’d finish with 308 points in 719 games between the Thrashers and Jets.  However, given the demand for mobility on the back end, it’s certainly possible that he’ll attract some more interest next summer if he has a good showing in Sweden.

Karlsson Talks Pick Up: After things had gone quiet for a while regarding Senators defenseman Erik Karlsson, trade talks have picked up in recent days with a particular emphasis on the Western Conference.  Vancouver was briefly believed to be involved but GM Jim Benning quickly shot that down.  Karlsson himself also denied reports that he wouldn’t be willing to sign an extension in a Canadian city.  The Senators gave permission to prospective suitors to talk to Karlsson’s representatives about the parameters of an extension last month

Couturier Out Four Weeks: Flyers center Sean Couturier sustained a knee injury during a summer tournament that will keep him off the ice for roughly a month.  As a result, he will likely be held out of their lineup in the early part of the preseason but he should be fully recovered in time for the start of the regular season in October.  The 25-year-old is coming off of a career year that saw him collect 76 points in 82 games while averaging 21:36 per game, the third-most among all NHL forwards.

Chara Could Play Past 2018-19: While some have wondered if Zdeno Chara could be entering the final year of his career, that doesn’t appear to be the case.  Bruins head coach Bruce Cassidy indicated that his veteran blueliner “wants to have his legacy run a lot longer than just one more year,” suggesting that the 41-year-old isn’t planning on hanging up his skates after the upcoming season.  Chara isn’t the top pairing player he once was but he still logged nearly 23 minutes a night in 2017-18 which helped him earn a one-year, $5MM deal for 2018-19 that could reach as high as $6.75MM with performance bonuses.

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With training camps now just a month away, the pressure will start to pick up slightly to get new contracts done.  We saw a few of those deals inked this past week which highlight the top stories.

Three Years For Kase: Ducks winger Ondrej Kase was one of their more pleasant surprises in 2017-18.  After being largely a role player in his rookie campaign, he emerged as a quality secondary scorer as he scored 20 goals, tied for the second most on the team.  Anaheim rewarded him for his efforts, signing the 22-year-old to a three-year, $7.8MM contract.  The deal pays an even $2.6MM in each of the three seasons which means that figure will also represent his qualifying offer when it expires.  The Ducks still have some work to do in restricted free agency as winger Nick Ritchie is also in need of a new deal.

Sekera Out Indefinitely: After missing a big chunk of last season due to his recovery from a torn ACL, the Oilers were counting on a big year in 2018-19 from defenseman Andrej Sekera.  Unfortunately for them, that won’t be the case as he sustained a torn Achilles tendon during offseason training and has undergone surgery.  While the team is listing him simply as out indefinitely at this point, this will cost him a significant portion of the upcoming season.  As Edmonton’s top-paid blueliner, he will be tough to replace while this also places a bit more pressure on getting a deal done with restricted free agent defenseman Darnell Nurse.

Ellis Locked Up: Earlier this summer, Predators GM David Poile called locking up defenseman Ryan Ellis to a long-term extension their top priority.  They were able to get that accomplished on Tuesday as the two sides agreed to an eight-year, $50MM extension that will kick in for the 2019-20 season.  Notably, the deal does not contain any no-trade protection.  While he missed nearly half of last year due to knee surgery, he still managed to put up 32 points in just 44 games; his 0.73 points per game average was a career-best.  With the signing, Nashville’s big four on the back end are all locked up through 2019-20 while three of them are signed through 2021-22 meaning that their defense corps will continue to be the backbone of their team for a while yet.

Boeser, Canucks To Discuss Extension: Although he has just one full NHL season under his belt, Canucks winger Brock Boeser is entering the final year of his entry-level deal and is eligible to sign an extension at any time.  The two sides had preliminary talks last month and will meet again next week to see if they can make some progress on a new deal.  Some notable players have signed in the $6MM range coming off their entry-level contracts and it’s reasonable to expect that Boeser should check in somewhere around that area as well even though he has less of a track record than most players coming off of the second year of their rookie pact.

Laine In No Rush To Sign Extension: While the Canucks will be talking to their top youngster about a new deal, that may not be the case for the Jets and winger Patrik Laine.  In an interview, the 20-year-old acknowledged that he’s in no rush to get a deal done and that he’s open to signing this summer or waiting until next offseason.  He did, however, indicate that his preference is to get a long-term pact done with Winnipeg.  Laine has scored 80 goals in his first two rookie seasons (the second most in the league) and he should have a case that he’s worth the eight-year, $80MM extension that Buffalo handed center Jack Eichel (the second overall pick in 2015) last summer.

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While the activity around the league has slowed down as we’re well into the summer, there was still some notable news in recent days.  Here’s a rundown of the top stories from the past week.

Six Years For Dvorak: The Coyotes typically don’t hand out too many long-term contracts but they made an exception with youngster Christian Dvorak as they inked the center to a six-year, $26.7MM contract.  The 22-year-old followed up a strong rookie season with a very similar sophomore campaign as he collected 15 goals and 22 assists in 37 games.  Giving someone with those types of numbers a $4.45MM AAV has raised some eyebrows but it’s clear that GM John Chayka believes that Dvorak has another level to his game and that the asking price would have higher if they waited until after next season to get a deal done.

Tkachuk To Forego Remaining NCAA Eligibility: Brady Tkachuk had set a deadline to make a decision about whether he would sign with Ottawa or return for his sophomore year at Boston College.  The fourth overall pick has opted to sign with the Sens which eliminates his remaining college eligibility.  The question now becomes where the winger will play in 2018-19.  While he could potentially play regularly with the Senators, they could also opt to assign him to their AHL affiliate in Belleville or to the London Knights of the OHL who have his junior rights.

Wild To Wait On Staal Extension: While several teams are looking to lock up their prominent potential unrestricted free agents a year early, Minnesota will be taking a different approach when it comes to center Eric Staal.  The team plans to shelve any thought of a new deal until the season gets underway where new GM Paul Fenton can evaluate if he’s still going to be part of their plans moving forward while also hedging against a regression from his 42-goal, 76-point 2017-18 campaign.  Staal has been a major bargain on his current contract which pays $3.5MM per year, well below market value for someone producing like a top pivot.

Larkin Locked Up: Detroit got their top remaining restricted free agent locked up by signing center Dylan Larkin to a five-year, $30.5MM contract.  The deal gets their top point getter from last season signed at a good rate but the term is a little curious as it only buys out one season of UFA eligibility.  Larkin will be eligible to hit the open market at 27 which should have him well-positioned for an even bigger deal at that time.  For the time being, the Red Wings now project to be about $3.2MM over the salary cap but that could be alleviated and then some if center Henrik Zetterberg is unable to play next season.  GM Ken Holland acknowledged that their captain has been dealing with continued back problems which makes his status uncertain for October.  If he winds up on LTIR along with Johan Franzen, Detroit will wind up being well under the cap to start 2018-19.

Mikita Passes Away: Long-time Blackhawk and Hall of Fame winger Stan Mikita passed away at the age of 78.  He ranks 14th all-time in scoring with 1,467 career points in 1,397 career games and won a pair of Hart Trophies as well as a  Stanley Cup title back in 1961.  He still holds several records in Chicago including assists, points, games played, and plus/minus while sitting second in goals.  Mikita’s presence is still being felt today as he was one of the first to use a curved blade on his stick, something that is now commonplace today.

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