Predators Sign Austin Roest To Entry-Level Deal
The Predators signed right-wing prospect Austin Roest to a three-year, entry-level contract Friday, per a team release. The deal will begin next season, expiring and making him an RFA in 2027. Terms were not disclosed.
Nashville selected Roest, 20, in the sixth round of the 2023 NHL Draft. The son of former Red Wings and Wild center Stacy Roest has played the last four seasons with the WHL’s Everett Silvertips and has served as team captain this season. He’s tied for the team lead in goals this season with 31, and his 59 points in 54 games rank fourth.
Roest becomes the third player selected by the Predators in last year’s draft to ink his entry-level deal. All have come from the WHL. First-round pick Tanner Molendyk and second-round pick Kalan Lind signed theirs last summer.
The 5-foot-10, 181-lb forward’s production has dipped slightly from last season’s 78 points in 60 games that got him selected last year after being passed over in 2022. If he cracks the NHL lineup further down his development path, he projects as a playmaker whose forechecking game makes him an ideal fit for an offensively-inclined third or fourth line.
His chances of cracking the NHL lineup next season are slim. Thus, his professional career will begin with the AHL’s Milwaukee Admirals or ECHL’s Atlanta Gladiators in 2024-25.
Capitals Sign Zac Funk To Entry-Level Contract
The Capitals have nabbed one of the top undrafted free agents hitting the market today, signing WHL leading goal-scorer Zac Funk to a three-year, entry-level deal. In a team release, the Capitals confirmed the contract will carry a cap hit of $810K, equivalent to his NHL salary, and $82.5K in the AHL.
Funk, 20, has exploded for 56 goals and 99 points in just 58 games with the Prince George Cougars, sitting third in the league in points behind Kraken prospect Jagger Firkus and Wild prospect and Prince George teammate Riley Heidt. The 6-foot, 209-lb Funk can play both wings and has NHL-ready size.
He’s unlikely to crack Washington’s NHL roster next season, but he will join one of the best minor-league franchises in the world in the AHL’s Hershey Bears. The defending Calder Cup champions are on a roll again in 2023-24, boasting a league-best 41-9-3 record.
Their success stems mainly from more veteran minor-leaguers. Still, they will likely continue to be staffed by top Capitals prospects Ivan Miroshnichenko and Vincent Iorio next season, giving Funk a solid core of young players to grow with.
Funk will be an RFA when his deal expires in 2027. He will require waivers after playing three professional seasons or skating in 80 NHL games, whichever comes first.
Lightning Sign Milo Roelens To Entry-Level Contract
4:12 p.m.: Roelens’ ELC carries a cap hit of $870K, per PuckPedia. In all three seasons, the deal carries a $775K salary, a $95K signing bonus, up to $80K in games played bonuses, and a minors salary of $82.5K.
12:01 p.m.: Free agent center prospect Milo Roelens signed a three-year, entry-level contract with the Lightning on Friday, per a team release. The agreement, for which terms were not released, will begin next season and make Roelens an RFA in 2027.
Roelens, 21, is in his final season of junior hockey and has spent the last four seasons in the QMJHL. The massive 6-foot-6, 207-lb pivot was traded from the Sherbrooke Phoenix to the Acadie-Bathurst Titan last summer, a move that’s allowed him to break out for 25 goals, 37 assists, and 62 points with 90 PIMs in 56 games this year.
Crossing over the point-per-game threshold for the first time in his major junior career, Roelens now has his professional home secured for the next three seasons. The Canadian-Belgian dual national was born in Ste-Pétronille, Québec, and received some outside consideration for selection in last year’s NHL Entry Draft but was ultimately passed over.
A decent two-way pivot, Roelens can also play left wing. Like many young UFAs who will sign deals over the coming days, his NHL prospects are limited given his delayed offensive breakout at the junior level, but he’s done well enough in junior play this year to likely secure a spot with Tampa’s primary affiliate, the AHL’s Syracuse Crunch, next season. If he doesn’t crack their roster out of camp, he’ll be demoted to the second-tier ECHL with the Orlando Solar Bears.
Roelens’ +17 rating leads Acadie-Bathurst this season, as do his 25 goals. His 62 points are second on the team behind former Hurricanes prospect Robert Orr, another potential free-agent pickup for teams in the coming days or over the summer.
Roelens is the second unsigned prospect to ink an entry-level deal today, joining former Sharks draft pick Max McCue. McCue inked a three-year contract with the Blue Jackets to open this year’s free-agent signing period for UFA prospects coming out of junior hockey.
Blue Jackets Sign Max McCue To Entry-Level Deal
2:01 p.m.: The contract carries a cap hit of $858K, per PuckPedia. The deal pays him $775K salary in all three years, a $82.5K signing bonus in 2024-25 and 2025-26 that jumps to $85K in 2026-27, and a minors salary of $82.5K in all three years.
10:37 a.m.: Today marks the first day teams can sign unaffiliated prospects in free agency, and the Blue Jackets are the first team to make a splash. They’ve inked 21-year-old center Max McCue to a three-year entry-level contract that begins in 2024-25, per a team release. Terms were not disclosed.
McCue was a fifth-round pick of the Sharks in 2021, but San Jose lost his exclusive rights after opting not to sign him to an entry-level contract by June 1, 2023. He’s suited up for the OHL’s London Knights since 2019 but lost out on the 2020-21 campaign entirely due to COVID-19, putting a pause on his development.
Still with London as an alternate captain, McCue has set or tied career highs with 24 goals, 26 assists, 50 points, and a +20 rating in 52 games. The 6-foot-1, 174-lb native of Sudbury, Ontario, relies on his speed to generate offense and projects as more of a playmaker than a goal-scorer at the professional level.
McCue has ideal size for the NHL level if he can add more muscle. However, his delayed offensive production in juniors doesn’t bode well for his chances of being a full-time major leaguer.
He’ll likely begin his pro career next season with the AHL’s Cleveland Monsters, although an assignment to the lower-level ECHL isn’t out of the question. Columbus is one of the handful of NHL teams without a dedicated ECHL affiliate.
Columbus now has 32 out of a maximum of 50 standard player contracts signed for next season, so they still have plenty of room to re-sign their pending RFAs and add a few more bodies to the organization in free agency.
Morning Notes: Senators, Khusnutdinov, Wild/Predators
The Senators’ top four on defense has rarely been healthy at the same time this season, mainly due to Thomas Chabot and Artem Zub struggling to stay healthy. Zub has missed the last three games with a lower-body injury, and although he appears ready to return tomorrow against the Coyotes, it could be one step forward and as much as three steps back, notes Postmedia’s Bruce Garrioch. Chabot, Jake Sanderson, and center Joshua Norris all underwent MRIs for undisclosed (upper-body in Norris’ case) ailments yesterday, per interim head coach Jacques Martin, putting their statuses for the Arizona game in doubt.
Aside from the on-ice impact derailing their recent momentum, it’ll be quite the roster puzzle to make corresponding recalls. Zub is the only extra skater on the Ottawa roster, and despite that, they have no cap space for any standard recalls unless they determine one of their three newly injured players will miss at least 10 games and 24 days, in which case they can be placed on LTIR. For a $0 emergency recall, Ottawa would have to play short a player for one game, meaning they could be limited to just 16 skaters tomorrow. They could then recall two players whose cap hits are $850K or less for Saturday’s road game in Philadelphia.
Other things to keep an eye on this morning with the deadline approaching:
- The Wild hope to have newly signed prospect Marat Khusnutdinov with the team by the end of next week, GM Bill Guerin told Joe Smith of The Athletic on Wednesday. After inking his two-year, entry-level deal yesterday, the 21-year-old Russian center will now begin the work visa and immigration process. Guerin confirmed that Minnesota would start him in the NHL upon his arrival and forego an initial assignment to AHL Iowa and anticipates him stepping into a center role down the stretch. The 2020 second-round pick had six goals, 14 assists, 20 points, and a -14 rating in 55 games with the KHL’s SKA St. Petersburg and HK Sochi this season.
- Sticking with Minnesota, their game on the road in Nashville tonight will likely go a long way toward informing trade deadline strategies and playoff outcomes for both teams. The Predators now have a five-point gap between them and ninth-place Calgary for the final playoff spot in the West, while the Wild are looking to swing two points in their favor to draw within four of the postseason cutoff with a game in hand. Minnesota’s 8-2-1 run since the All-Star break has them squarely back in the playoff conversation after falling out of it entirely a couple of months ago, but a similarly scorching stretch from Nashville has helped them tighten their grip on a playoff berth for the 16th time in the last 20 seasons.
Wild Sign Marat Khusnutdinov To Entry-Level Deal
4:01 p.m.: Per PuckPedia, Khusnutdinov’s deal carries a cap hit of $925K. The deal breaks down as follows:
2023-24: $832.5K base salary, $92.5K signing bonus, $80K minors salary
2024-25: $832.5K base salary, $92.5K signing bonus, $850K Schedule ‘A’ performance bonus, $80K minors salary
1:31 p.m.: Minnesota has made Khusnutdinov’s signing official, inking him to a two-year, entry-level contract. Terms were not disclosed, although the deal begins immediately and will make him an RFA in 2025.
9:27 a.m.: The Wild are expected to sign 2020 second-round pick Marat Khusnutdinov to his entry-level contract in the coming days, The Athletic’s Michael Russo reports.
Khusnutdinov’s time in the Russian KHL ended last weekend after his club, HK Sochi, wrapped up their regular-season schedule. They did not qualify for postseason play, and while his contract with the club expires this offseason regardless, Khusnutdinov’s agents are undergoing the process for a mutual contract termination so that Khusnutdinov can join the Wild before the KHL’s free agency period begins.
The 21-year-old plays both center and left wing and was selected out of the SKA St. Petersburg organization three years ago, where he remained until an early-season move to Sochi this year. He was a consensus early-second-round pick after posting 38 points and a +27 rating in 44 Russian junior league games in his draft year, so it wasn’t much of a surprise when the Wild took him off the board at 37th overall.
While his 5-foot-9, 165-lb frame may pose difficulties for him transitioning into a center role at the NHL level, he’s a spectacular skater, intelligent playmaker, and zone-entry machine – making him an important top-nine piece for the Wild in the coming years if he can physically adapt to North American play.
2023-24 was somewhat of a disappointing campaign for Khusnutdinov, however, who recorded no points through six games with St. Petersburg and only six goals and 20 points in 49 games for Sochi. Last season, he solidified himself as a top-six piece on a powerhouse St. Petersburg team stacked with NHL veterans such as Nikita Gusev and Dmitrij Jaskin, posting 41 points in 63 games and a +15 rating.
Minnesota’s director of player development, former NHL defenseman Brad Bombardir, told The Athletic’s Joe Smith last summer that the organization expected Khusnutdinov to jump into an NHL role immediately when he came over. By all indications, that remains their plan.
Khusnutdinov will count against the cap when he signs his deal in the coming days but won’t count against the 23-man roster. He’ll carry a non-roster designation while he gets his work visa, per Russo, and the Wild will need to make a transaction to clear a roster spot when he’s ready to debut.
While he’s likely not a long-term top-line answer, Khusnutdinov does add to a Wild center core that’s lacked much punch outside of Joel Eriksson Ek for the past number of years. Top-ten pick Marco Rossi is coming into his own and looks to ease those pains, but Khusnutdinov is likely better suited for a third-line role anyway. He’s ranked as Minnesota’s third-best center prospect by Dobber Prospects, trailing Rossi and 2023 second-round pick Riley Heidt.
Rangers Recall Brennan Othmann
The Rangers recalled winger Brennan Othmann, one of their top forward prospects, from AHL Hartford on Thursday, per a team announcement. With an open roster spot and sufficient salary cap space, no corresponding transaction is necessary.
It’s likely not a permanent promotion for the 21-year-old, who played in his first three NHL games earlier this season. He comes up for precautionary reasons, with Artemi Panarin and Jimmy Vesey listed as day-to-day with lower-body injuries. If neither can play against the Devils tonight, Othmann and minor-league veteran Alex Belzile will enter the lineup.
Othmann has had some defensive growing pains in his first pro season, but his offensive production suggests he’s on track to meet the expectations assigned to him when the Rangers picked him 16th overall in 2021. With 14 goals, 22 assists, and 36 points in 44 games, he’s second on Hartford in scoring behind Belzile, although his -14 rating is the worst on the team.
The Scarborough, Ontario, native averaged 9:05 in his trio of NHL showings in January and recorded six shots on goal. He’s still looking for his first NHL point.
The 6-foot, 175-lb winger signed his entry-level contract over two and a half years ago, but after spending the prior two campaigns on loan to the OHL, an entry-level slide activated twice and pushed the beginning of his deal to this season. As such, signing bonuses paid out during the slide reduced his cap hit slightly to $863.3K from its initial $925K, and he’ll be a restricted free agent without arbitration rights in 2026.
Bruins Move Matthew Poitras To LTIR, Recall Mason Lohrei
The Boston Bruins have moved rookie forward Matthew Poitras to long-term injured reserve and recalled rookie defenseman Mason Lohrei from the AHL, per team reporter Joe Haggerty. Poitras has been declared as out for the season after undergoing surgery on his shoulder. He was 33 games into his NHL career, scoring five goals and 15 points, after surprising fans by making the roster out of training camp. Lohrei also had a strong training camp, leading many to believe he’d join Poitras in making the NHL roster. That didn’t come to fruition, with Lohrei starting the season in the AHL, but he quickly earned a call-up and NHL debut. He’s since played in 27 NHL games, scoring six points, split evenly, while also scoring 13 points in 17 AHL games.
Lohrei has emerged as a top prospect in Boston’s system this year – his first full professional season. The 23-year-old defenseman made his pro debut last year, following the end of The Ohio State University’s season, playing in eight AHL games between the regular season and playoffs and recording one assist. He’s since only added one more AHL goal to his resume, though he has managed three NHL goals already, speaking to where he might fit better. Lohrei has always been a productive defender, scoring 61 points in 71 games over the course of two seasons at Ohio State. The Bruins drafted Lohrei 58th overall in the 2020 NHL Draft. He’s since become one of 15 players from that round to make their NHL Debut, including rookie standout Brock Faber and sophomore scorer John-Jason Peterka.
Poitras was also a second-round selection, joining the Bruins in the 2022 NHL Draft. He’s played in the most NHL games of any player not taken in the Top 10 of that draft, and scored more than all but three players. His success speaks to Boston’s ability to find difference makers throughout the draft, a trait that’s kept them on top of the league for so long. While season-ending surgery is the worst news you can hear in a rookie season, the Bruins have certainly seen enough from Poitras to be eager for his return to the NHL lineup.
Canadiens Loan Joshua Roy To AHL
The Canadiens returned forward Joshua Roy to AHL Laval on Wednesday, according to a team announcement.
Roy, 20, didn’t look entirely out of place in his first NHL call-up. A fifth-round pick of the team in 2021, Roy scored his first NHL goal in a 3-2 win over the Devils last Wednesday and added another assist in the span of six games. He averaged nearly 12 minutes per game and posted a 45.2% Corsi share at even strength. While that number doesn’t jump off the page, the Canadiens played a poor stretch of possession hockey during Roy’s call-up, resulting in the rookie posting a strong relative Corsi share of 4.1%.
It’s been a quick ascension for Roy, who now looks like one of the organization’s top prospects after slipping to the back half of the draft less than three years ago. He won back-to-back gold medals with Canada at the 2022 and 2023 World Junior Championship and was named to the QMJHL’s First All-Star Team in back-to-back years with the Sherbrooke Phoenix. In his first extended taste of pro hockey, Roy has excelled in Laval, tying for the team lead with 12 goals in 34 games while adding 18 assists for 30 points, earning Rookie of the Month honors in October.
After a promising first NHL stint, Roy will likely spend the rest of the season in the minors as he continues his development. He’ll be an outside candidate to crack Montreal’s opening night roster next season and should, barring an unforeseen bump in his development, be a full-time NHL player by the time his entry-level contract expires in 2026.
Devils Expected To Sign Tom Fitzgerald To Multi-Year Extension
The New Jersey Devils are expected to sign general manager Tom Fitzgerald to a multi-year extension and added President of Hockey Operations to his list of roles. Fitzgerald has been with the Devils since the summer of 2015 when he joined the club as an assistant general manager. He served in the role for five years, ultimately taking over for general manager Ray Shero when he was fired from the club in January 2020. Fitzgerald was granted the full general manager title that summer and has since built one of the league’s premiere squads, serving a key role in the blockbuster trade for Timo Meier, Dougie Hamilton‘s seven-year contract, and the drafting of top defensive prospects Luke Hughes and Simon Nemec.
New Jersey is a fantastic team on paper, though injuries have significantly limited their ability to reach their ceiling. In fact, the Devils are currently outside of the playoff picture, currently sitting two points behind the Eastern Conference’s second wild card – though they do have two games in hand. Their season has been marked by heavy limitations to all of their top names – with Hamilton currently out indefinitely, Meier and Jack Hughes both missing 13 games and Nico Hischier missing 11. The team hasn’t been able to match the production that these top-line players bring, as only two Devils currently have 30 or more points through the team’s first 45 games.
But despite the struggles, New Jersey is opting to stick with their top brass, extending both head coach Lindy Ruff and now GM Fitzgerald. They will hope the duo can command the Devils’ roster back to the Stanley Cup hopes they entered the season with, once they’re able to get healthy.