Flames Sign Mikael Backlund To Two-Year Extension
As alluded to a few weeks ago, the Calgary Flames are keeping their captain for the next few years. The Flames announced they’ve signed Mikael Backlund to a two-year, $6.5MM contract through the 2027-28 season.
For the second contract in a row, Backlund has taken a pay cut to remain with the only organization he’s ever known. After earning a $5.35MM salary from 2018 to 2024, Backlund will watch his current $4.5MM salary drop to $3.25MM on his new extension.
Despite the Flames being engaged in a retool, Backlund has shown clarity in his desire to remain in Calgary. The Flames drafted Backlund with the 24th overall pick in the 2007 NHL Draft, and debuted with the team during the 2008-09 campaign.
The native of Västerås, Sweden, is primarily recognized for his defensive skills in southern Alberta, but over the past decade, he has also been a reliable secondary scorer. Since the start of the 2015-16 season, Backlund has scored 164 goals and 435 points in 768 games with a +68 rating, finishing top 10 in Selke Trophy voting three times.
His defensive production is where his value truly lies, with Backlund managing a 49.0% faceoff percentage, 90.7% on-ice save percentage at even strength, and 54.0% CorsiFor% at even strength. This has led to the Flames retaining Backlund as an active second-line center, despite rostering more offensively-minded centers.
It’s hard to determine whether this will be Backlund’s final contract with Calgary. He’ll be preparing for his age-39 season if he plays after the expiration of the extension, and will have played in his 20th professional season. He has expressed interest in playing through the Flames retool, and their competitiveness over the next few years may influence his future decisions.
Photo courtesy of Christopher Hanewinckel-USA TODAY Sports.
Predators Sign Scott Harrington, Isaac Ratcliffe To PTOs
The Predators are bringing in defenseman Scott Harrington and winger Isaac Ratcliffe into training camp on professional tryouts, reports Brooks Bratten of NHL.com. Both are likely angling for contracts with their AHL affiliate in Milwaukee for the upcoming season.
Harrington, 32, has over 250 games of NHL experience but hasn’t played in the league since the 2022-23 season, which he split between the Sharks and Ducks. He spent last season on an AHL contract with the Springfield Thunderbirds, the Blues’ affiliate, and made 49 appearances. While historically more of a two-way defender, the offense wasn’t there for Harrington, who only contributed a goal and five points with a -5 rating. The year before, he had four assists in 14 games with Switzerland’s ZSC Lions – the only overseas experience of the lefty’s lengthy professional career.
There’s little downside for the Predators in adding an experienced rearguard to their depth ranks, but the likelihood of him landing an NHL contract – let alone a call-up – isn’t all that high. The team already has 15 defenders signed to contracts for the upcoming campaign, and redundant veteran names like Andreas Englund, Kevin Gravel, and Jordan Oesterle to fill veteran injury replacement roles with more recent NHL experience.
Ratcliffe, 26, only has 10 games of NHL experience back in 2021-22 with the Flyers. He scored a goal and three assists during that call-up. A 2017 second-round pick, Nashville initially acquired him for future considerations midway through the 2022-23 campaign but left him stashed with Milwaukee for the balance of the campaign. He’s spent the last two years on AHL deals, hopping to the independent Chicago Wolves in 2023-24 before returning to Milwaukee for last year. The 6’6″ forward was injury-limited to just 13 games, scoring a goal and two assists. His PTO will serve as an AHL tryout as well, much like Harrington’s, in an effort to extend his playing career.
Blues Sign Nathan Walker To Two-Year Extension
The Blues have agreed to a two-year extension with forward Nathan Walker, the team announced. The diminutive lefty earns a $1.775MM commitment that will count $887,500 against the cap in 2026-27 and 2027-28, just above a league-minimum deal covering those campaigns.
Walker, 31, has been a fan favorite wherever he’s played. Either a high-end AHLer or press box piece for most of his career, he’s the only Australian skater in league history and has slowly begun to establish himself as an everyday NHLer over the past few seasons, more than a decade after the Capitals made him an overage choice in the third round of the 2014 draft. He’s now appeared in each of the last eight NHL seasons, but hadn’t breached the 40-game mark until three years ago.
Last season was Walker’s sixth in the Blues organization after signing there as a free agent in 2019. It also marked a considerable breakthrough for the 5’9″ winger, who worked his way into a career-high 73 appearances and recorded an 8-8–16 scoring line in fourth-line minutes. He also became something of a fringe penalty killer for them, averaging a few ticks over 12 minutes per game. His small stature doesn’t mean he doesn’t play a high-energy game – in fact, he led St. Louis in hits by a wide margin last season with 281 and blocked 61 shots, most among Blues forwards.
Walker also had a mini-breakout in the postseason. In his first playoff action since appearing four times for the Blues in 2022, Walker skated in all seven games in St. Louis’ first-round loss to the Jets and had three goals and four points – all coming in Games 5, 6, and 7.
He’ll now fight to keep his regular role in the lineup in training camp. He’ll be challenged by returning depth pieces Mathieu Joseph and Alexandre Texier, free-agent pickups Nick Bjugstad and Pius Suter, and young names like 2023 first-rounder Dalibor Dvorsky for ice time. He’ll do so with some added financial security after signing his second two-year extension with the club in as many years.
Penguins Expected To Sign Robby Fabbri To PTO
The Penguins are bringing in winger Robby Fabbri to training camp on a professional tryout, reports Matt Vensel of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
Fabbri spent the 2024-25 season with the Ducks. He played a prominent role when in the lineup, averaging 16:12 of ice time per game, but injuries once again took a significant bite out of his season. He underwent knee surgery in November, which cost him a month, before sustaining a season-ending hand injury in late February. He finished the year with an 8-8–16 scoring line in 44 games. That worked out to 0.36 points per game, his worst production in six years and the second-worst season of his career.
That’s a concerning drop-off for a player whose ability to produce effectively when he’s able to go is his only real calling card. Fabbri has only played more than 60 games in a season three times in his nine-year career. The last time he didn’t miss at least 10 consecutive games in a season was back before the pandemic in 2019-20. Despite him averaging the third-most ice time of his career, Fabbri only recorded 1.48 shots on goal and 2.52 shot attempts per game for Anaheim, both significantly below his career averages of 1.67 and 2.83, respectively.
Understandably, that led to some tampered interest on the open market this summer, especially as he’s set to turn 30 midseason. It’s also worth noting he spent last year in one of the league’s worst offensive environments. Only two teams scored fewer goals than the Ducks’ 217, and they were squarely in the bottom half of every shot and chance generation metric at 5-on-5. Fabbri’s career average is right around 0.50 points per game and, up until last year, he’d been fairly consistent in that regard. From 2019-20 to 2023-24 with the Blues and Red Wings, Fabbri’s points per game stayed between 0.47 and 0.60 each season.
That makes him a buy-low candidate for a rebuilder in Pittsburgh. If they find a spot for him among their myriad young forwards competing for opening-night jobs along with other already-signed reclamation projects like Anthony Mantha, he could end up generating an additional draft pick for them if they sign him to a deal and flip him at the trade deadline. He joins career minor-leaguer Brett Murray as reported PTO attendees to the Pens’ camp.
Sharks Sign Oliver Wahlstrom To PTO, AHL Deal
5:45 PM: The AHL’s San Jose Barracuda have announced Wahlstrom has signed a minor-league deal with the club. That will serve as his fallback, should he not earn an NHL deal out of camp.
4:15 PM: The San Jose Sharks will soon sign winger Oliver Wahlstrom to a professional try-out contract, per David Pagnotta of The Fourth Period. The report was later confirmed by PuckPedia. Pagnotta points out that Wahlstrom will have an AHL deal to fall back on, should he not earn an NHL contract. He was previously an unrestricted free agent after not receiving a qualifying offer from the Boston Bruins at the start of the summer.
Wahlstrom played his first games outside of the New York Islanders organization midway through last season. After six years of failed attempts to earn an everyday role in the top-nine, the Islanders made the decision to place Wahlstrom on waivers in mid-December. He was claimed by the Bruins the next day, and stuck with Boston for the rest of year, even clearing waivers with the club in February. Wahlstrom split his time between the NHL and AHL Bruins, beginning with 16 games in Boston where he racked up two points and 28 penalty minutes in a bottom-six role. He looked much more electric in 26 games with the Providence Bruins to close the year, netting 19 points and 14 penalty minutes in total.
But even in a move away from New York, Wahlstrom struggled to earn routine NHL minutes. The former 11th-overall selection has fallen a long way since making his NHL debut in 2019. He quickly struggled to score at the NHL level, with 12 goals and 21 points in 44 games of his rookie season standing as the highest scoring pace of Wahlstrom’s pro career. He posted a career-high 13 goals and 24 points in 73 games of his second NHL season, but fell to menial scoring and routine healthy scratches soon after that.
The Islanders rotated Wahlstrom around the lineup, but couldn’t find the right match for his flashy puck-skills and hard shot. Those traits did come to life during his stint with Providence at the end of last season, though. That fact commanded the attention of AHL clubs looking for a boost in scoring. It’s also commanded the attention of one of the NHL’s true bottom-feeders. San Jose is looking to bring in as much veteran presence and leadership as they can, to help guide a roster that’s sure to be one of the youngest in the league. Wahlstrom will be in direct competition for minutes with young wingers like Collin Graf, Ty Dellandrea, Philipp Kurashev, and Quentin Musty. Each of those players face the test of proving they can stick in the NHL. The Sharks will be the beneficiaries of that competition, whether through awarding rookies strong minutes or finding the positives out of struggling veterans. They’ll hope Wahlstrom can be the one to emerge above the rest, and finally bank on his long-lauded potential.
Mammoth Sign Seven Players To PTOs
The Mammoth will have some added depth in training camp by way of seven professional tryouts targeted toward their AHL club, the club announced today. Among the seven, only two – forward Austin Poganski and goaltender Dylan Wells – already have a contract in the organization with Tucson for 2025-26. There will be five names – Ryan McGregor, Dryden McKay, Lleyton Moore, Ty Tullio, and Samuel Walker – looking to land either a two-way deal with Utah or an AHL contract with Tucson.
The 26-year-old McGregor has spent all five of his professional seasons exclusively with Tucson. The 6’0″ forward was a sixth-round pick by the Maple Leafs in 2017 but went unsigned, instead landing an entry-level deal with the Coyotes upon turning pro in 2020. That preceded a solid run as a bottom-six piece in southern Arizona, totaling a 24-44–68 scoring line in 201 career games for the Roadrunners. He spent last year in Tucson on an AHL deal after reaching Group VI unrestricted free agency. His lengthy history with the Arizona/Utah organizations makes him a solid bet to return for another year in a minor-league support role.
McKay actually already has a landing spot for 2025-26. He signed on with the Avalanche’s ECHL affiliate, the Utah Grizzlies, back in July. He didn’t get an invite to Colorado’s NHL camp, though, so he’ll instead stay in his new team’s area and get some reps in an NHL camp with the Mammoth. He’ll serve as a camp piece for roster management purposes in the preseason before presumably getting released and returned to the Grizzlies. The 27-year-old former Hobey Baker Award winner has a career .904 SV% and 3.06 GAA in 99 ECHL games over the last three years.
Moore, 23, is a skilled but undersized (5’8″, 179-lb) rearguard still adjusting to the pro game. He has two pro seasons under his belt, both with Tucson, and will be looking to land another minor-league deal to make it three. He has 12 points in 46 career games for the Roadrunners with a +5 rating.
Poganski’s PTO is just a formality to get him into camp and add a veteran player for preseason purposes. The 29-year-old was Tucson’s captain last season and will reprise the role in 2025-26. He had 15 goals and 41 points in 71 appearances for them last year. He has 22 career NHL appearances with the Blues and Jets between 2019 and 2022, but no points.
Tullio is still looking for a contract after a tumultuous 2024-25 season. A fifth-round pick by the Oilers in 2020, he was traded to the Sabres in last summer’s Ryan McLeod deal. He only played sparingly for their AHL affiliate in Rochester, though, leading the Sabres to loan him to the Flames’ farm club to finish the season. He had eight points in 13 games down the stretch in Calgary, so there’s some promise that he could land a two-way offer from the Mammoth or at least be something of an impact contributor for Tucson.
Outside of Poganski, Walker is the only other player here with NHL experience. He has a goal and an assist to his name in 13 games with the Wild, all of which came in the 2022-23 and 2023-24 seasons. He spent all of last year in the minors and was acquired by Utah midway through the season in a minor swap. He didn’t see an NHL recall after his acquisition, which saw him score 22 points in 31 games for Tucson, and subsequently became a Group VI UFA. The 5’10” pivot will now be angling for a two-way deal or a contract with Tucson.
Wells, 27, has been an AHL backup/ECHL starter for some time now, although not routinely under an NHL contract. He’s entering his third season in Tucson and had a solid .900 SV% and 2.89 GAA in 10 games for them last year.
Blackhawks Sign Matt Grzelcyk To PTO
The leading point scorer among free agent defensemen this summer will have to settle for a camp tryout. Matt Grzelcyk is heading to the Blackhawks on a PTO, Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet reports. Chicago later confirmed the signing by listing Grzelcyk on their training camp roster.
While the market for Grzelcyk wasn’t near what he or anyone else expected, it’s still jarring to see a rearguard with the platform season he had not land a guaranteed contract heading into camp. The 31-year-old lefty was also a UFA last summer but landed a one-year, $2.75MM deal with the Penguins on the first day of free agency. That contract led to expanded ice time in Pittsburgh, where he saw some power-play usage and averaged north of 20 minutes per game for the first time in his nine-year career. He played all 82 games – the first time he’s ever done that, too – and ranked third on the team with 39 assists. Only Sidney Crosby (58) and Erik Karlsson (42) had more.
Individual defensive acumen and a lack of physicality remain the 5’10” defender’s limiting factors. Still, he was at least able to prove once again that he can be a productive puck-mover in a top-four role as he was for many years in Boston, serving as a routine Charlie McAvoy partner for a good chunk of his early career. That led AFP Analytics to project a three-year contract for Grzelcyk in the $3.75MM range annually on the open market, while we projected a slightly cheaper deal and ranked him No. 22 among all unrestricted free agents this summer.
Grzelcyk now heads to training camp in Chicago, where the Blackhawks will welcome him as insurance for the league’s most inexperienced defense group. Connor Murphy is the only defender under contract in the Windy City over the age of 25. Alex Vlasic, at 24 years of age and 179 games of NHL experience, is the club’s top lefty by a wide margin.
Most expected the Hawks to completely hand the keys over to their younger blue-liners this season. Their lack of notable moves on offense signaled they weren’t anticipating jumping back into playoff contention just yet as their rebuild enters its later stages. Even then, there simply may be too many question marks behind Vlasic on Chicago’s left side on defense to make general manager Kyle Davidson comfortable entering camp without any other options. The right side is fairly set with Murphy, 2024 No. 2 overall pick Artyom Levshunov, and 2022 first-rounder Sam Rinzel expected to anchor their own pairings. However, behind Vlasic on the left, there’s no clear No. 2 or No. 3.
That’s not to say Chicago doesn’t have options, but they do lack clarity. Wyatt Kaiser, 23, could be the frontrunner for second-pairing minutes but is still a restricted free agent. 2022 No. 7 overall pick Kevin Korchinski played just 16 NHL games last season with two assists. Defensive-minded lefties Nolan Allan and Ethan Del Mastro both held their own in NHL minutes last season but are far from finished products. Grzelcyk offers a safe plug-and-play option as their second lefty behind Vlasic, buying them time to sort out everyone else’s readiness. Leaving him on a tryout gives the Blackhawks an easy out if they do decide to let names like Allan and Korchinski run with regular minutes out of the gate.
Image courtesy of Charles LeClaire-Imagn Images.
Transactions Notes: Poolman, Allison, Malmquist
Unrestricted free agent defenseman Colton Poolman has signed with the Glasgow Clan of the United Kingdom’s Elite Ice Hockey League, the team announced.
While Poolman doesn’t have an NHL game to his name, he’s spent the last five seasons on two-way deals. The 29-year-old was initially an undrafted free agent signing by the Flames out of the University of North Dakota in 2020. He switched teams in free agency last summer, signing with the Sabres. He was then traded to the Penguins in a minor-league swap in January.
Injuries significantly limited Poolman’s playing time last season. He made just five appearances for AHL Rochester while in Buffalo’s organization before the trade to the Penguins. He got slightly more playing time with AHL Wilkes-Barre/Scranton after the swap, recording four points and a +12 rating in 15 appearances.
The 6’0″, 201-lb lefty has long been a stable defensive presence at the minor-league level. While not a point producer by any stretch, he does have 44 of them with a career +45 rating in 233 AHL appearances since making his professional debut five years ago.
He joins the Clan as presumptuously one of the better shutdown defenders in the EIHL, which isn’t on par with Europe’s other top-division national leagues. The team’s two career games of NHL experience come from former Avalanche depth netminder Sami Aittokallio.
More minor moves from around the sport:
- Former Flyers winger Wade Allison has signed a one-year deal with the Straubing Tigers of Germany’s DEL, according to a team release. Allison headed overseas last summer after being a Group VI unrestricted free agent and signed with Kazakhstan’s Barys Astana in the KHL, but he only had two goals in 12 games before being released in November. He hasn’t played since and will now stage a comeback with Straubing. The 27-year-old power forward had a 13-9–22 scoring line in 75 appearances for Philadelphia from 2020 to 2023.
- While there was some speculation that University of St. Thomas product Liam Malmquist might be in line for an NHL deal coming out of college this offseason, that won’t be the case. The 24-year-old Minnesota native has signed in the Stars organization with ECHL Idaho, the club announced. Malmquist was the Tommies’ leading scorer in his senior season with 20 goals and 45 points in 38 outings. He scored his first two professional goals with AHL Manitoba in a five-game tryout to end last season.
Flyers Trade Ivan Fedotov To Blue Jackets
The Blue Jackets announced they’ve acquired goaltender Ivan Fedotov from the Flyers in exchange for their sixth-round pick in the 2026 draft. No salary is retained in the deal, according to The Athletic’s Kevin Kurz.
Columbus will acquire Fedotov after his first NHL season came in well below expectations. The 28-year-old had a long road to NHL minutes – including a years-long contract saga that involved mandatory military service in Russia and IIHF sanctions imposed on him over conflicting contracts with Philadelphia and CSKA Moscow – but finally arrived in North America in April 2024. He made his first three NHL appearances for the Flyers before signing a two-year extension with a $3.275MM cap hit. That theoretically locked in their goaltending tandem with Samuel Ersson also in the picture through at least this upcoming season.
Yet Fedotov, a former KHL Goalie of the Year who was viewed as potentially one of the next wave of high-end Russian netminders, barely held onto an NHL job. The military service that caused him to miss the 2022-23 season entirely was a significant statistical turning point for the 6’7″, 214-lb goalie. He made 26 relief appearances last year, logging a .880 SV% and 3.15 GAA with a 6-13-4 record. His 33.3% quality start rate was quite subpar, especially considering he posted a save percentage below .850 in 10 of his 24 starts. With an expected GAA of 2.58, Fedotov also received the most manageable defensive workload of the Flyers’ three goalies, according to MoneyPuck.
Columbus was looking for an insurance option if starter Elvis Merzlikins‘ struggles continue and youngster Jet Greaves‘ first chance at a full-time NHL role doesn’t pan out. Fedotov is far from a sure thing either, but they’re betting on his overseas track record as evidence of a potential bounce-back. He boasts a .921 SV% and 2.22 GAA with 10 shutouts in 133 career KHL games and had a 2021-22 season for the record books. He led CSKA to a Gagarin Cup championship with a staggering .937 SV% and 1.85 GAA in 22 postseason games. He was named the league’s best netminder and a First Team All-Star.
The Jackets, who PuckPedia projects to have over $15.5MM in cap space, will have no problem taking on Fedotov’s full salary for a year before he becomes eligible for unrestricted free agency next summer. If he doesn’t make the team over Greaves and Merzlikins, his cap hit is high enough that he should clear waivers without issue and serve as a third-string option in AHL Cleveland. It’s worth noting that Greaves is no longer waiver-exempt. It’ll be an uphill battle for Fedotov to convince the Jackets to risk losing Greaves on waivers, so if he makes the team, it’ll likely mean a three-goalie rotation in Columbus.
Meanwhile, the Flyers clear up a bit of a logjam. With Fedotov in the picture, they had four goalies in the mix for NHL minutes. Ersson and Aleksei Kolosov were still under contract, and they also inked Daniel Vladar to a two-year, $6.7MM deal in free agency to challenge Ersson for the No. 1 job. In trading Fedotov, they clear out the worst-value contract of the four and, with Kolosov remaining waiver-exempt, could now return to a traditional two-goalie setup with only Ersson and Vladar on the opening night roster.
Despite carrying a cap hit above $3MM, Fedotov will only cost the Blue Jackets $775K in actual dollars. His base salary in 2025-26 was only the league minimum. His other compensation came via a $2.5MM signing bonus, which the Flyers have already paid.
Image courtesy of Kim Klement Neitzel-Imagn Images.
Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet was first to report that Columbus was acquiring Fedotov. The Athletic’s Kevin Kurz was first to report the return.
Blackhawks Sign Spencer Knight To Three-Year Extension
When the Blackhawks acquired Spencer Knight from Florida as part of the Seth Jones deal prior to the trade deadline, they picked up who they feel can be their goalie of the future in the swap. They’ve now made sure he’ll be in the fold for a while longer as the team announced that they’ve inked the netminder to a three-year extension worth $17.5MM, or $5.833MM per season. GM Kyle Davidson released the following statement:
After joining the team in March, Spencer quickly cemented himself as a crucial piece of our future. A talented, young goaltender, he brings athleticism, sound positioning and a calm demeanor to his game, and we’re excited to watch Spencer continue to flourish in Chicago over the next four seasons.
Knight was a first-round pick by Florida back in 2019, going 13th overall. He quickly made the jump to the pros in 2020 and was the full-time backup for the Panthers in 2021-22. Soon after, Florida saw fit to give him a fairly significant bridge deal for a netminder with limited experience, signing him to a three-year, $13.5MM pact, the last season of which comes in 2025-26 with the extension running through 2028-29.
Florida didn’t get a great return on that deal at the beginning. Knight stepped away from the team in February 2023 to enter the Player Assistance Program to treat his Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder. The following year (the first of the new contract) was spent entirely at the AHL level with the Panthers prioritizing getting Knight as much playing time as possible while Sergei Bobrovsky and Anthony Stolarz comprised Florida’s tandem. He played relatively well with AHL Charlotte, posting a 2.41 GAA along with a .905 SV% in 45 games that season.
Stolarz moved on to Toronto last season, paving the way for Knight (now waiver-eligible) to return to the Panthers. He played in 23 games with Florida in 2024-25, putting up a 2.40 GAA and a .907 SV%, both better than the NHL average. That was good enough to make him the centerpiece of the return for Jones and Chicago gave Knight plenty of playing time down the stretch. The 24-year-old suited up in 15 contests for the Blackhawks following the swap where he had a 3.18 GAA and a .893 SV% on a group that was prioritizing giving some of their prospects plenty of playing time late in the year.
This deal buys Chicago only one extra year of team control as he still had two RFA-eligible years remaining after this one. PuckPedia relays (Twitter link) that the contract is front-loaded, paying $7.25MM in 2026-27, $5.75MM in 2027-28, and $4.5MM in 2028-29; he’ll also have a 15-team no-trade clause that year.
Knight will enter the season at the head of a goaltending trio that has quietly become one of the more expensive groups in the league. Arvid Soderblom begins the first year of his new two-year, $5.5MM pact and will likely be the backup while veteran Laurent Brossoit, who didn’t play last season due to injury, has one year left on his agreement at $3.3MM.
But while this contract cements Knight as the starter for a little while longer, it stops short of handing him the job for the long haul. That should prove appealing for their prospects as Drew Commesso and Adam Gajan were both second-round picks that Chicago hopes can be part of the future plans as well. Commesso had a solid year with AHL Rockford in 2024-25 while making his NHL debut while Gajan struggled in his first taste of college action and is probably a couple of years away from turning pro. If one of them breaks through and seriously pushes for the starting job, Chicago can still pivot and go in that direction while if not, they’ll get the next few years to see if Knight is the right fit for the job for the long haul.
Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman was the first to report that Chicago was signing Knight to an extension. Bleacher Report’s Frank Seravalli was the first to report the terms.
Photo courtesy of Charles LeClaire-Imagn Images.