Predators Recall Matt Murray, Juuse Saros Out Day-To-Day
11:09 a.m.: Saros has officially been listed as day-to-day with a lower-body injury, per Daugherty. He hasn’t been officially ruled out for tomorrow’s game, however.
10:47 a.m.: The Predators have recalled netminder Matt Murray from AHL Milwaukee, per a team release. It’s a sign there may be an undisclosed injury bothering either Juuse Saros or Scott Wedgewood before tomorrow’s home opener against the Stars – perhaps the former after taking a maintenance day yesterday, as pointed out by Alex Daugherty of the Tennessean. Either way, the Preds have two open roster spots and ample cap space, so no corresponding transaction is required.
Murray, 26, enters the season as Nashville’s No. 3/4 option between the pipes after he inked a two-way deal with the Preds over the offseason. He’d spent the entirety of his NHL career up to that point in the Stars organization, where he landed as an undrafted free agent out of UMass in 2022. The Alberta native made four NHL starts for Dallas over the past two seasons, posting a 2-2-0 record with one shutout, a 2.53 GAA, and an .885 SV%.
Not to be confused with two-time Stanley Cup champion Matt Murray, this Murray fared well in the AHL with the Texas Stars up until last year. His numbers fell off a cliff, limited to a .896 SV% and 3.02 GAA in 31 games after logging a .911 SV% in 34 appearances the year prior. He lost the starters’ crease to 23-year-old Rémi Poirier and, unsurprisingly, wasn’t tendered a qualifying offer by Dallas, allowing him to head to Nashville as a UFA.
Murray will battle for starts this season in Milwaukee alongside 24-year-old Magnus Chrona, who was acquired from the Sharks in this offseason’s Yaroslav Askarov trade. He passed through waivers unclaimed on Sep. 30 and can be on the NHL roster for up to 30 days (or play 10 games) until he needs them again to return to the minors.
Kraken Extend Joey Daccord
The Kraken announced they’ve put pen to paper with goaltender Joey Daccord on a contract extension. It’s a five-year deal worth $25MM, adds Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet, keeping him in Seattle through the 2029-30 season. The 28-year-old will earn an average of $5MM per year.
Daccord was slated to hit unrestricted free agency next summer for the first time, but this deal will keep him off the open market until shortly before his 34th birthday. That means he’ll spend most, if not all, of his prime in Seattle, where he broke out as a legitimate tandem option last season after spending the overwhelming majority of his first four professional seasons in the minors.
Daccord entered the 2023-24 season as the Kraken’s backup option behind Philipp Grubauer, set to be promoted to full-time NHL duties for the first time after guiding AHL Coachella Valley to the Calder Cup Final in its first season. It’s hard to imagine a better first year for Daccord, who not only established himself as a legitimate NHL option but pushed himself ahead of Grubauer on the depth chart.
His .916 SV% tied Boston’s Jeremy Swayman for seventh in the league among goalies with at least 20 appearances, and he added three shutouts and stopped 16.8 goals above average while making 46 starts and four relief appearances. He had a .926 SV% at even strength, second in the league among starters behind Vezina Trophy winner Connor Hellebuyck. His strong showing didn’t result in any outside Vezina consideration, but he did earn a couple of third-team All-Star votes at the end of the year.
It’s been a lengthy road to NHL relevancy for Daccord, who was a seventh-round pick of the Senators all the way back in 2015 out of the Massachusetts prep school ranks. Two years later, he was in the NCAA, playing a key role in helping the formerly independent Arizona State to Division I relevancy. He was named to the West region’s Second All-American Team in his junior outing in 2018-19 when he backstopped the Sun Devils with a 21-13-1 record and .926 SV% in 35 appearances. That was enough for the Sens to sign him and bring him to the pros.
Daccord posted decent numbers in minor-league action for the Sens, but injuries and COVID limited his total playing time. After nine NHL appearances in Ottawa, logging a 1-4-1 record and a .894 SV%, he was left unprotected in the 2021 expansion draft and was claimed by Seattle. He was viewed as a high-ceiling option but cleared waivers at the beginning of 2022-23, even after posting a .925 SV% in his first year in the Kraken organization in 34 games with AHL Charlotte.
Now, Daccord’s AHL days are behind him after posting a .918 SV% in 98 appearances at the second-tier level. A $25MM deal is certainly a significant commitment from the Kraken to a netminder with fewer than 70 NHL games under his belt, but his robust workload last year gave them enough confidence to ink the contract.
Unfortunately, it also means Seattle will be carrying an expensive tandem of Daccord and Grubauer totaling $10.9MM against the cap for the next two seasons after this one. Grubauer, who’s struggled heavily with a .893 SV% and -39.0 GSAA in 131 appearances for the Kraken since their inaugural season, still has three years left on his deal at a $5.9MM cap hit. He has a 10-team no-trade list, but the cap-strapped Kraken might be able to unload him next summer with only two seasons left on his contract if they’re willing to attach a sweetener. That would allow them to land a more cost-effective option to partner with or back up Daccord.
The Kraken now have $79.15MM tied up in 15 players for next season, leaving them roughly $13.35MM in flexibility for eight players, assuming the cap rises as expected to $92.5MM. Notable pending UFAs include Yanni Gourde, Brandon Tanev, William Borgen, and Josh Mahura, while notable RFAs include Ryker Evans and Tye Kartye.
ESPN’s Kevin Weekes was the first to report that Daccord and the Kraken were nearing an extension. Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet was first to report the terms of the contract.
Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.
Avalanche Reassign Chris Wagner
The Avalanche announced yesterday that forward Chris Wagner has been reassigned to the AHL’s Colorado Eagles. He had previously cleared waivers on Sunday but wasn’t sent down, remaining with the club and appearing on their opening night roster. However, it looks like he won’t be with the team for tonight’s season opener in Vegas, leaving the Avs with an open spot on the 23-man roster.
Wagner, 33, signed a two-way deal to join Colorado last summer and remained in the organization after inking a two-way extension in April. A fifth-round pick of the Ducks back in 2010, he’s seen NHL ice in parts of 10 seasons with the Avs, Bruins, Ducks, and Islanders, albeit in more limited fashion over the past few years. He’s made just 15 appearances combined in the past three seasons after years of being a fourth-line regular, instead logging significant time in the AHL.
His offensive performance has never stood out, averaging eight goals and 14 points per 82 games over his career. His minor-league production has never jumped off the page, either, with his 97 goals and 81 assists in 384 AHL appearances working out to 0.46 points per game. But he has shown to be an effective physical presence, recording over 100 hits in a season four times and posting unimpressive but acceptable possession numbers in traditionally defensive usage at even strength. Last year, he posted two points and a +3 rating with 30 hits in 13 appearances for Colorado, averaging 7:27 per game.
Wagner has spent significant time at center and on both wings, and while he’s a natural right-winger, he has posted a 49.2 FOW% in nearly 1,500 draws at the NHL level. He was a candidate to open the season as Colorado’s fourth-line center after Pierre-Édouard Bellemare was released from his tryout, but it appears that job will now go to offseason pickup Parker Kelly.
The Avs have no extra forwards on the active roster after sending Wagner down, confirming that Ivan Ivan and Nikolai Kovalenko will make their regular-season debuts tonight after being recalled early yesterday.
Senators Sign Linus Ullmark To Four-Year Extension
The Senators have signed goaltender Linus Ullmark to a four-year, $33MM extension, the team announced today. TSN’s Darren Dreger was the first to report the news. It will carry a cap hit of $8.25MM and keep him in Canada’s capital through the 2028-29 season.
Per PuckPedia, Ullmark’s contract contains a full no-move clause. It’s also paid out entirely in base salary with no signing bonuses. He’ll earn $7MM in 2025-26 and $8MM in 2026-27 before earning $9MM annually in the final two years of the deal.
The deal closes a brief period of uncertainty for the Sens, who parted ways with the No. 25 pick in this year’s draft, Joonas Korpisalo, and Mark Kastelic to bring the 2023 Vezina Trophy winner in from the Bruins over the offseason without any assurances the pending free agent would sign an extension. Instead, the 31-year-old will avoid becoming a UFA for the second time in his career and play out the remainder of his prime years in Ottawa.
However, Ullmark isn’t doing his new team any favors with a discount on his market value. His $8.25MM cap hit is identical to the eight-year deal his former tandem partner Jeremy Swayman signed to remain in Boston long-term. He’s much older, though, and while he’s been a decidedly above-average netminder for five years in a row now, he likely couldn’t have commanded a more prosperous deal on the open market. That does offer some explanation for why he’s opted to sign this agreement so soon into extension talks, which were nonexistent as recently as two weeks ago, per reports.
But it’s also quickly coming into view that Swayman has already accomplished his self-stated goal of resetting the goalie market with his contract. Before he signed, it would have been hard to imagine Ullmark landing a contract just $250K shy annually of the recent long-term extension that Connor Hellebuyck, a more established bona fide No. 1, signed in Winnipeg not too long ago. Now, however, Ullmark easily becomes the fourth-highest-paid goalie in the league next season, although he’ll drop to fifth at some point. He was the second-best goalie atop the 2025 UFA class, outmatched by Rangers star Igor Shesterkin. But after reportedly rejecting an eight-year, $88MM offer to keep him in New York, the latter remains without a deal.
After spending his entire career until the 2021 offseason in the Sabres organization, Ullmark cashed in with a four-year, $20MM deal with the Bruins. The Swede had posted solid numbers in limited action in Buffalo but emerged as an outright star in Boston, delivering a rock-solid .917 SV% and 11.0 GSAA in 41 appearances in his first season as the Bruins dealt with the retirement of franchise netminder Tuukka Rask. He split the net evenly with the rookie Swayman that year, a sign of things to come.
Not many goalies can win the Vezina in a full season with fewer than 50 appearances to show for it, but if there will ever be an exception to the rule, it was Ullmark’s 2022-23 campaign. His play was astounding and one of the biggest factors fueling the Bruins’ record 65-win regular season, posting a 40-6-1 record in 49 appearances with a league-leading .938 SV%, 1.89 GAA, and eye-popping 48.5 GSAA. He took home the Vezina, shared the Jennings Trophy with Swayman (who was solid in his own right with a .920 SV%), and finished 10th in Hart Trophy voting.
Even in a regression season, Ullmark was still among the league’s premier goalies in 2023-24. He finished sixth in Vezina voting after logging a .915 SV%, a 2.57 GAA, and two shutouts with a 22-10-7 record. But his level of play was just slightly bested by Swayman, who started a slim majority of Boston’s games for the first time and took over completely in postseason play. With Swayman reaching restricted free agency this offseason and Ullmark set to hit the open market the following year, the writing was on the wall for Boston to part ways with the veteran and his bargain $5MM cap hit to make room for the younger netminder and to upgrade other areas of their roster, which had relied too heavily on elite goaltending in recent years.
For the Senators, acquiring Ullmark already addressed their biggest weakness. Extending him only gives them further runway with this core to finally return to playoff contention amid a seven-year drought. In nearly every sense, last year’s Ottawa team should have taken a step forward, controlling the majority of scoring chances, shot attempts, and high-danger chances at even strength. Horrid showings between the pipes from Korpisalo and Anton Forsberg doomed them, though, as their combined -30.9 GSAA tanked the Sens’ record back below the .500 mark and far away from a wild card spot.
With Ullmark instead of Korpisalo last season, there’s a very real argument that Ottawa would have ended its playoff drought already. The only question mark will be whether Ullmark can handle an increased workload with diminished support in the form of Forsberg as his backup. He’s never made more than 50 appearances in a season and has made more than 40 starts just once, during his Vezina-winning campaign.
Looking at the 2025-26 season, Ottawa now has $75.4MM wrapped up in 13 players after Ullmark’s extension, per PuckPedia. Assuming the cap jumps to a reported $92.5MM ceiling, the Sens have just over $17MM to fill 10 roster spots, including an extension for pending RFA Ridly Greig.
Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.
Rangers Make Nine Roster Moves
After submitting a cap-compliant roster for Monday’s opening-night deadline, the Rangers have shuffled their group to get to their actual game roster for tonight’s season opener against the Penguins. As expected, William Cuylle, Adam Edstrom, Victor Mancini, and Matt Rempe were recalled from AHL Hartford yesterday, making the team in effect, reports Vince Z. Mercogliano of USA Today Sports. Five players – forwards Anton Blidh, Jake Leschyshyn, and Adam Sýkora, as well as defensemen Ben Harpur and Matthew Robertson, were sent down to create roster and cap space.
The Rangers opened up a roster spot with the moves, but that’s not why they made them. Having the extra salary on the technical opening night roster allowed them to maximize their capture when placing winger Jimmy Vesey and his $800K cap hit on long-term injured reserve. They now have $792K in their season-opening LTIR pool, per PuckPedia. After yesterday’s moves, they’re sitting with north of $600K in cap space.
All four of yesterday’s recalls are expected to slide into the lineup against Pittsburgh tonight. Veteran Jonny Brodzinski appears to be on the outside looking in as the 13th forward to start the year, while Mancini will slide in for Ryan Lindgren, who’s on IR with an upper-body injury. It’ll be his NHL debut.
It’s an impressive feat for Mancini, who appears to have usurped veteran No. 7 option Chad Ruhwedel in the pecking order, at least for now. He’s also pushed himself up on the Blueshirts’ depth chart past other veteran defensive depth options with NHL experience like the aforementioned Harpur. The 22-year-old was a fifth-round pick just two years ago out of the University of Nebraska-Omaha, where the 6’4″, 220-lb stay-at-home defender had four goals and 23 points in 110 games with a +4 rating. He’s entering his first full season of pro hockey but did close out last year with six assists in 17 combined regular-season and playoff games for Hartford.
Edstrom, listed at 6’6″, and Rempe, listed at 6’9″, are back to reprise their roles on one of the tallest combined forward lines in league history. They got spot duty together last season when they were both on the roster, getting seven games of action flanking Barclay Goodrow. The line has lost a couple of inches with the 6’2″ Goodrow now replaced by a 6’0″ Sam Carrick, but an opening night look is still promising for the younger duo of Edstrom and Rempe.
Edstrom, 24 on Saturday, had two goals in his first 11 NHL appearances last year. Rempe, meanwhile, scored a goal and an assist in 17 games. Only the 22-year-old Rempe saw playoff action, though, drawing into 11 of New York’s 16 postseason games en route to the Eastern Conference Final.
Cuylle was always a near-lock to make the team, only being sent down briefly for cap purposes, as mentioned earlier. The 22-year-old left winger had a promising rookie season in 2023-24, scoring 13 goals and eight assists for 21 points in 81 games while averaging 11:08 per game. He played a frequent third-line role at even strength but received little to no special teams usage. The 6’3″, 212-lb former second-rounder also finished fourth on the team in PIMs (56), tied for sixth in even-strength goals (12), and led them in hits (249).
Florida Panthers Extend Carter Verhaeghe
The Florida Panthers have come to terms on an extension with one of their best forwards from their run to a Stanley Cup championship a season ago. The team announces they have agreed to an eight-year extension with forward Carter Verhaeghe beginning next season.
Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reported that Verhaeghe will earn $7MM each year of the deal with $46MM of the $56MM being paid out in bonuses. Friedman also adds that Florida gave Verhaeghe a six-year no-move clause that will begin this season and last the first five years of his new deal.
Verhaeghe had an odd pathway toward becoming one of the most consistent forwards on a Stanley Cup championship team. The Toronto Maple Leafs originally drafted him with the 82nd overall pick of the 2013 draft but he would only play two games in the organization by way of two appearances with the AHL’s Toronto Marlies in 2013-14. The Maple Leafs moved on quickly from Verhaeghe despite two solid years with the OHL’s Niagara IceDogs as he was moved in the trade that brought Michael Grabner to Toronto.
His time in the New York Islanders organization was eerily similar to his time with the Maple Leafs playing exclusively in the AHL or ECHL. He failed to move his way up the Islanders’ depth chart and the team moved him to the Tampa Bay Lightning in a minor 2017 trade for Kristers Gudļevskis. His offensive potential was beginning to blossom upon his arrival in Tampa Bay scoring 51 goals and 130 points in 134 games for the AHL’s Syracuse Crunch from 2017-19.
Verhaeghe made his NHL debut over six years after being drafted on October 3rd, 2019. He skated in 52 games for the Lightning that season scoring nine goals and 13 points while averaging 9:22 of ice time. He also played sparingly in Tampa Bay’s run to the Stanley Cup Final that season tallying two assists in eight games while getting his name on the Cup for the first time in his career.
The Bolts were seemingly unimpressed by Verhaeghe’s pedestrian scoring output in his rookie campaign and non-tendered him over the offseason. Their interstate rivals, the Panthers, acted quickly by signing Verhaeghe to a two-year, $2MM contract.
His major breakout happened almost instantaneously with the Panthers. He scored 18 goals and 36 points in 43 games for Florida in the Covid-shortened 2020-21 campaign and quickly became one of the best bargain contracts in the league. Verhaeghe followed up his breakout campaign with another solid year with 24 goals and 55 points in 78 contests which firmly cemented him in the Panthers’ top six. 
The last two years have been Verhaeghe’s best with 76 goals and 145 points in 157 games since the start of the 2022-23 NHL season. He’s also been one of Florida’s best playoff performers in the team’s back-to-back runs to the Stanley Cup Final scoring 18 goals and 38 points in 45 postseason contests.
General manager of the Panthers, Bill Zito, spoke highly of Verhaeghe by saying, “Carter is one of our most trusted players. South Florida has watched him evolve into one of the NHL’s most elite goal scorers while also being a relentless forechecker. His willpower and perseverance have allowed him to repeatedly succeed as a critical performer on the biggest stages. He is an integral part of our team now and into the future, and we are thrilled to see him remain a part of our core group“.
Florida is making a major push to lock in their core for the foreseeable future and keep their contention window wide open. Verhaeghe’s extension marks the sixth Panthers’ player with at least six years left on their contract including Gustav Forsling, Sam Reinhart, Aleksander Barkov, Matthew Tkachuk, and Anton Lundell.
Pacific Notes: Kane, Savoie, Wright, Eberle
As expected the Edmonton Oilers have announced they have placed forward Evander Kane on long-term injured reserve to start the 2024-25 NHL season. He had major surgery in mid-September on two torn hip adductor muscles, two hernias, and two torn lower abdominal muscles which will keep him off the ice for the next four months.
The move gives Edmonton some much-needed financial breathing room and will allow them to safely register Travis Dermott‘s one-year, $775K contract. Kane’s LTIR placement gives the Oilers $5.125MM in cap room after starting the year with only $53 of space.
Things will get tricky for Edmonton once Kane returns from surgery in mid-January since his contract will be added back to the active roster. The team will still accrue cap space thanks to a separate transaction today (more on that later) but will still be in a bind when Kane returns.
Other Pacific notes:
- In the same announcement, the Oilers shared they have reassigned forwards Matthew Savoie and Cameron Wright to their AHL affiliate, the Bakersfield Condors. The two combined for $1.811MM in cap space with the latter signing a one-year, $925K contract with the team yesterday. Coupled with the team officially signing Dermott to a one-year, $775K contract they have opened up another $1.036MM in salary cap space.
- Before the team’s first game of the regular season against the St. Louis Blues this afternoon, the Seattle Kraken named their second captain in franchise history. Forward Jordan Eberle will now don the ‘C’ for Seattle and will be the first player to do so since defenseman Mark Giordano. Eberle was selected by the Kraken from the New York Islanders in the 2021 Expansion Draft and signed a two-year, $9.5MM extension with the club during the 2023-24 regular season.
Edmonton Oilers Sign Travis Dermott
4:41 PM: Edmonton has officially announced the one-year, two-way contract for Dermott.
11:27 AM: The Oilers still have defenseman Travis Dermott with the organization on a professional tryout, and it’s expected to result in a two-way contract tomorrow, per PuckPedia. Edmonton still has some procedural moves to make, including maximizing their cap hit before placing winger Evander Kane on LTIR, so it’s not surprising Dermott’s deal has had to wait. While it’s a two-way deal, it would be a surprise to see Dermott land on waivers instead of starting the season on the NHL roster with the Oilers carrying only six defenders.
From 2018 to 2022, Dermott was a regular with the Maple Leafs, peaking as a serviceable third-pairing option who wasn’t afraid to involve himself physically. Over his first three seasons in Toronto, Dermott posted 41 points in 157 games with a +25 rating, averaging 17 minutes per contest. He was consistently among the team’s hit leaders, finishing third on the club with 100 in 64 appearances in 2018-19, and posted well above average possession metrics in his relatively easy minutes. While a left-shot defender, he’s logged some time playing on the right as well.
But over the past three seasons, his overall play has taken a step back. After being sent to the Canucks at the 2022 trade deadline, he missed most of the following season with a concussion and played just 11 games. He wasn’t given a qualifying offer and landed with the Coyotes shortly thereafter on a one-year, two-way deal for 2023-24. He avoided waivers and played 50 games last year for Arizona, posting seven points (2 G, 5 A) and a -14 rating while averaging 17:17 per game – the most ice time he’d logged since 2019-20.
Dermott’s showing last season certainly doesn’t jump off the page. However, he was given the toughest minutes of his career with the Yotes, starting nearly 60% of his even-strength shifts in the defensive end. His possession metrics responded in kind, posting a 45.0 xGF% and a 44.3 CF%, the worst possession numbers of any Arizona defender not named Josh Brown, who’s now also in the Oilers organization.
The Oilers’ defense is far from set after they lost Vincent Desharnais in free agency and cap constraints forced them to deal Cody Ceci to the Sharks. They’re looking for a partner for Darnell Nurse on the team’s second pairing, a competition Dermott may enter alongside Ty Emberson and Troy Stecher.
Carolina Hurricanes Recall Jackson Blake, Reassign Bryce Montgomery
The Carolina Hurricanes will get one of their top forward prospects into the lineup for their regular season opener on Friday. The organization announced they have recalled Jackson Blake from their AHL affiliate, the Chicago Wolves while sending recently signed defenseman Bryce Montgomery the other way.
Blake has become a ‘diamond in the rough’ find for Carolina with the team selecting him with the 109th overall pick of the 2021 NHL Draft. His play came to life at the University of North Dakota with 38 goals and 102 points in 79 contests. The Hurricanes quickly signed Blake to his entry-level contract last spring after tying for fourth in the NCAA in scoring and finishing third in Hobey Baker Award voting.
He should find a consistent role in Carolina’s middle-six to start the year with the team losing so much forward depth over the summer. The Hurricanes still need a more reliable winger to put next to Sebastian Aho and Seth Jarvis on the top line which could be Blake’s if he adjusts well to the NHL. He finished his first preseason in Carolina with one goal and two points in four contests.
AHL Chicago was always the likely landing spot for Montgomery after the team signed him to his entry-level contract yesterday. He appeared in 48 last year for the ECHL’s South Carolina Stingrays scoring four goals and 12 points overall. He’s a big defenseman standing at 6’5″, 231lbs, and should bring a lot of physicality and roughness to the Wolves back end this season.
Jets Recall Jaret Anderson-Dolan, Place Him On Injured Reserve
The Jets have recalled forward Jaret Anderson-Dolan from AHL Manitoba and subsequently placed him on injured reserve retroactive to Oct. 2, the team announced.
Anderson-Dolan, 25, returns to the NHL after clearing waivers yesterday but won’t count against the 23-player roster limit for now. He’s day-to-day with an undisclosed injury that he sustained while blocking a shot in exhibition play against the Flames. The retroactive placement means he’ll be eligible to return tomorrow for Winnipeg’s season opener against the Oilers if need be, but it’s unlikely.
A second-round pick of the Kings in 2017, Anderson-Dolan’s nearly seven-year run in the organization came to an end last March when the Predators claimed him off waivers. A fringe NHLer, Anderson-Dolan had recorded just four points in 30 games last season before landing on the wire. He barely played down the stretch in Nashville, either, logging just one regular-season appearance and none in the playoffs.
Accordingly, Nashville opted not to tender Anderson-Dolan a qualifying offer this offseason, making him an unrestricted free agent. He came to terms on a two-year, partial two-way deal with the Jets on the second day of free agency and was expected to battle for an extra forward spot.
Despite the recall, it’s unclear if he’ll stay on the active roster after he returns to health. The Jets have a full 23-player roster without him, although there will likely be a corresponding move coming in the crease. Connor Hellebuyck has been absent from practice for the past two days for personal reasons, forcing the Jets to carry three goalies on their season-opening roster. Once likely No. 3 option Eric Comrie hits the waiver wire in the coming days, Anderson-Dolan could stick around as the team’s second extra forward.
Anderson-Dolan has 15 goals and 13 assists for 28 points in 127 career NHL appearances. He also has 79 points in 115 career AHL games.