Predators Re-Sign Marc Del Gaizo To Two-Way Deal
The Predators have re-signed defenseman Marc Del Gaizo to a two-way contract, per a team announcement. The restricted free agent will earn a $775K salary if on the NHL roster next season and $125K in the AHL, Alex Daugherty of The Tennessean reports.
Del Gaizo, 25 next month, was a fourth-round pick of the Preds in 2019. He made his NHL debut last season, recording three assists and a +2 rating while averaging 16:28 across nine appearances in a pair of call-ups in November and March.
The New Jersey native is coming off a career-best season in the minors with the AHL’s Milwaukee Admirals. On assignment to the Ads, he set new career highs in goals (8), points (34), and rating (+18) in 60 appearances, leading or tying for the team lead in every offensive category. An undersized (5’11″/187 lbs) left-shot defender, Del Gaizo ended his 2023-24 campaign with seven points and a +6 rating in 15 playoff games for Milwaukee.
Del Gaizo was an RFA this summer after completing his entry-level contract. After the Preds signed Juuso Pärssinen this morning, he was one of two remaining RFAs Nashville had. Now, just forward Philip Tomasino remains without a deal.
Entering his fourth professional season, Del Gaizo is no longer waiver-exempt. On the cusp of challenging for more NHL minutes, there’s a non-zero chance he gets claimed if Nashville attempts to sneak him through and return him to Milwaukee to start the season. Spencer Stastney played more last season and has the inside track to lock down an extra defense spot on the Preds’ opening night roster, supplementing their six D-men signed to one-way deals, but he is still waiver-exempt. That could prove advantageous to Del Gaizo’s chances of starting the season in Tennessee instead of Wisconsin.
Predators Re-Sign Juuso Pärssinen To One-Way Deal
The Predators are close to re-signing RFA center Juuso Pärssinen to a one-year, one-way deal, according to a team release. Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet was first to report the contract. The left-shot forward will earn the league minimum salary of $775K.
Pärssinen, 23, made his NHL debut with Nashville in 2022-23 – certainly coming ahead of schedule for the 2019 seventh-round pick. He stayed on the roster for the entirety of the season after his initial November recall, making 45 appearances before an upper-body injury ended his season in late February. He posted six goals and 19 assists for 25 points, finishing eighth on the team in points per game, and averaged 14:20 per night while winning 50.2% of his faceoffs and logging 76 hits with middling possession numbers.
Last season, Pärssinen made the team out of camp but couldn’t carry over his overall level of play into his sophomore campaign. He posted 12 points in 44 games with similarly below-average possession numbers and a much worse showing in the faceoff dot (37.5 FOW%) before being assigned to the minors in late January.
Pärssinen remained there for the rest of the regular season, making 36 appearances for the AHL’s Milwaukee Admirals with seven goals, 18 assists, 25 points, and a +12 rating. He was added back to the Preds’ playoff roster, and he did draw into the lineup for their season-ending 1-0 loss in Game 6 of the First Round against the Canucks.
An RFA at season’s end following the conclusion of his entry-level contract, Pärssinen is at a transitional spot in his development, making it difficult to work out a deal. His performance over the last few seasons in the minors has warranted his NHL looks.
The 6’3″ pivot’s production and physicality in a bottom-nine role certainly make it seem like there should be a consistent role for him down the line. Still, there are enough holes in his all-around game that warranted his demotion. As such, Nashville was likely angling for a two-way deal in negotiations here, likely with a slightly higher NHL salary should he spend time on the major league roster. Instead, Pärssinen lands a one-way pact that’s much safer financially.
It’s also indicative that he’ll make the Preds’ opening night roster for the second year in a row. With Pärssinen under contract, the Preds now have the minimum 12 forwards on their projected 2024-25 roster, per PuckPedia, and there are few (if any) forwards in the organization on entry-level or two-way contracts with a legitimate shot at starting the year in the NHL. They now have $1.5MM in projected cap space with two open roster spots and another RFA forward, Philip Tomasino, still left to sign.
Atlantic Notes: Newhook, Dach, Panthers, Khaira
Expect Alex Newhook to start the season on the wing on the Canadiens’ second line centered by Kirby Dach and flanked by Patrik Laine, says Eric Engels of Sportsnet. It may not be a long-term fit, though, as Engels cautions not to be “surprised if there’s a bit of a revolving door next to Dach and Laine as the season rolls along.” Regardless of who plays with them, early signs point to Dach shifting to center after spending a good portion of his first season in Montreal, the 2022-23 campaign, on the wing. The 23-year-old forward missed all but two games last season after tearing his ACL and MCL in his right knee.
There’s more out of the Atlantic:
- The Panthers will dip their toes into the professional tryout market soon, says David Dwork of The Hockey News. They’re on the lookout for a veteran forward, likely to compete to help replace the departures of fourth-liners Nick Cousins, Steven Lorentz, Kyle Okposo, and Kevin Stenlund over the past few months. Notable UFAs left to fill those roles that haven’t landed PTOs elsewhere include Pierre-Édouard Bellemare, Cal Clutterbuck, Matt Martin, and Chris Tierney.
- Jujhar Khaira‘s streak of appearing in an NHL game for the last nine seasons is in jeopardy after settling for an AHL contract today with the Lightning’s affiliate, the Syracuse Crunch. Khaira, 30, was once a regular bottom-six presence for the Blackhawks and Oilers around the turn of the decade but was relegated to an AHL role last season after signing a two-way deal with the Wild, making just one NHL appearance for Minnesota early in the season. In 22 games with the Iowa Wild, his first minor league action since the 2016-17 campaign, he scored five goals and added 13 assists for 18 points. His AHL deal with the Crunch could include a PTO with the Lightning, allowing him to participate in NHL training camp and attempt to earn a two-way contract with Tampa.
Senators Sign Calen Addison, Nikolai Kulemin To PTOs
The Senators are bringing in defenseman Calen Addison and veteran winger Nikolai Kulemin into training camp on professional tryout agreements, the team announced Thursday.
Addison, 24, will look to catch on in Ottawa after a difficult 2023-24 campaign. The right-shot defender broke into a full-time role with the Wild in 2022-23, playing minimally at even strength but posting 29 points in 62 games while logging significant time on the Minnesota power play.
Defensive concerns have always been paramount with Addison’s game, though. A second-round pick of the Penguins back in 2018, he arrived in Minnesota’s prospect pool two years later via the trade that sent Jason Zucker to Pittsburgh. In his limited usage in 2022-23, averaging 16:07 per game, he still managed to log a team-worst -17 rating.
An RFA last offseason, Addison held out for much of the summer before agreeing to a one-year, $825K deal shortly after training camp began in September. He played just 12 games for the Wild, posting five assists and a -3 rating, before he was traded to the league-worst Sharks in early November.
Even as the top offensive and power-play option on a paper-thin San Jose defense, Addison couldn’t reclaim his offensive production from the year before. He posted a more conservative 12 points in 60 games after the trade, averaging 17:21 per game and supplementing it with a -35 rating, although that figure doesn’t stick out like a sore thumb on a Sharks team that finished the season with a -150 goal differential.
Nonetheless, it wasn’t particularly surprising when the Sharks non-tendered Addison in June, letting him hit the unrestricted free-agent market three years before he’d otherwise be eligible for UFA status. With no interest in a guaranteed deal, he’ll look to land a likely league-minimum pact in camp with the Sens.
While Ottawa’s top four on defense are set to enter the season with Thomas Chabot, Nick Jensen, Jake Sanderson, and Artem Zub, there will be a fair amount of competition for bottom-pairing jobs. Veteran Travis Hamonic is still under contract, and he’ll be competing with the younger Jacob Bernard-Docker and Tyler Kleven for minutes out of the gate. There’s more than enough room for Addison to squeeze himself into the conversation, especially as a much more skilled puck-mover than any member of that trio.
Meanwhile, Kulemin is an immediate contender for the most eye-popping PTO of the offseason. The 38-year-old winger was a second-round pick of the Maple Leafs back in 2006, playing in over 400 games for the club (including a 30-goal campaign in 2010-11). He then signed a four-year deal with the Islanders in free agency in 2014, recording 37 goals and 79 points in 248 games there.
But after falling to a fourth-line role amid a rash of injuries in 2017-18, the final season of his contract in New York, Kulemin opted to return to his native Russia the following summer. He’s spent the last six years in the Kontinental Hockey League playing for Metallurg Magnitogorsk and Salavat Yulaev Ufa.
Kulemin is still an effective secondary scorer in a top professional league, though, even in the final stages of his career. He had 13 goals and 25 points in 46 games for Ufa last season, finishing sixth on the team in scoring while serving as an alternate captain.
It’s a puzzling career move for Kulemin, but it appears he’s intent on getting another shot in North America. There is an outside chance he could land a fourth-line role and make the opening night roster, competing with players like Angus Crookshank and Zack MacEwen. But if he’s intent on adding to his 669 career NHL games, he’ll likely need to do it by starting with the Sens’ AHL affiliate in Belleville and working his way back up.
Maple Leafs Sign Marshall Rifai To Two-Year Extension
The Maple Leafs have extended defenseman Marshall Rifai on a two-year contract, the team announced today. The deal will pay him up to $1.55MM in total ($775K per season) if he’s on the NHL roster – the league minimum. PuckPedia adds that it’s a one-way agreement in both years.
Rifai, 26, signed an AHL contract with the Maple Leafs’ affiliate, the Toronto Marlies, after completing his collegiate career at Harvard in 2022. He landed a two-year, two-way NHL deal with the Maple Leafs the following summer after recording 16 points, a +3 rating, and a team-high 118 PIMs in 69 games with the Marlies in his first professional season.
The left-shot defender’s first year under an NHL contract also saw him make his NHL debut. Rifai suited up twice for the Leafs last season, posting a +1 rating, one shot, and four hits while averaging 11:40 of ice time across the pair of February contests. He also improved offensively on the farm, upping his production to 17 assists and 19 points in 57 games with the Marlies while posting 71 PIMs and a +14 rating.
Rifai would have become an unrestricted free agent next summer, a fate avoided with today’s extension. He’ll now be eligible to test the open market when his new deal expires in 2027. Attaching two additional years of term to his contract now makes it highly unlikely that a team will claim Rifai off waivers when Toronto attempts to assign him to the Marlies to begin the season.
Ducks Sign Oscar Dansk To Two-Way Deal
The Ducks have added free agent goaltender Oscar Dansk, signing him to a two-way deal, the team announced today in a press release. Financial terms were not disclosed by the team but PuckPedia reports that the contract pays $775K in the NHL, $150K in the minors, and has a guarantee of $200K.
Dansk, 30, has made just six NHL appearances, all for the Golden Knights, and hasn’t seen NHL ice since March 2021. He hasn’t been out of the NHL pyramid, though. He spent the last two seasons on two-way deals with the Flames, recording a 3.04 GAA, .900 SV%, and a 19-18-5 record in 44 AHL games for the Calgary Wranglers while backing up top goaltending prospect Dustin Wolf.
Following that run, he’ll remain in a No. 3/4 role for a Pacific Division club. Dansk will likely land on waivers during training camp and, if he clears, report to the AHL’s San Diego Gulls. There, he’ll complement a trio of young Ducks netminders: Vyacheslav Butsayets, Calle Clang, and Tomas Suchanek. At least one of those three, likely Butsayets, will be destined for assignment one level further down to the ECHL’s Tulsa Oilers.
Dansk, a Stockholm native, was a second-round pick of the Blue Jackets in 2012. In addition to his time in the Columbus, Vegas, and Calgary organizations, Dansk has played professionally for Rögle BK of the Swedish Hockey League (2015-2017) and Spartak Moscow of the Kontinental Hockey League (2021-22).
Devils Sign Jakub Zboril, Michael Hutchinson To PTOs
The Devils have officially signed defenseman Jakub Zboril and goaltender Michael Hutchinson to professional tryout agreements, the team announced today in a pair of press releases.
Zboril, the No. 13 overall pick by the Bruins in 2015, didn’t see any NHL action last season for the first time since 2019-20. He was waived following training camp and assigned to the AHL’s Providence Bruins, where he was limited to nine points and a -5 rating in 31 games before his nine-year tenure in the Boston organization ended in March.
After being shipped to the Blue Jackets in the trade deadline deal that saw Andrew Peeke head to the Bruins, Zboril posted four assists and a -2 rating in 15 games to end the season with Columbus’ AHL affiliate, the Cleveland Monsters. He wasn’t brought back after reaching unrestricted free agency this summer following the conclusion of the two-year, $2.28MM extension he signed to stay in Boston in 2022.
Now 27, Zboril has topped out as a top-four AHL defender or a fringe No. 7 option on an NHL roster. He has one goal, 15 assists, 16 points, and an even rating in 76 career appearances in parts of four seasons with the Bruins, averaging 15:38 per game. The 6’0″, 194-lb defender does play an effective physical game, but he hasn’t been a notable offensive option in the pros, even at the AHL level.
Hutchinson, 34, will provide veteran insurance between the pipes during camp to complement a trio of young, NHL-contracted depth netminders who will be jockeying for AHL and ECHL starts. He hasn’t been a full-time NHL option since the mid-2010s, but he has still made at least one appearance per year in a depth role for various teams.
He spent last season with the Red Wings, mostly with their AHL affiliate, the Grand Rapids Griffins. But he did make one NHL start, ironically against the Devils, posting a .917 SV% in a loss on Dec. 23, 2023. He’s struggled in AHL action over the past few years, posting sub-.900 save percentages for three seasons in a row.
Neither player will compete earnestly for a spot on the Devils’ opening night roster. Instead, they’ll look to convert strong camp performances into two-way deals and land with New Jersey’s AHL affiliate, the Utica Comets, for 2024-25 after likely passing through waivers unclaimed.
Mattias Norlinder Signs Two-Year Deal In Sweden
As expected, former Canadiens defense prospect Mattias Norlinder will continue his career in his native Sweden. The 24-year-old inked a two-year deal with MoDo Hockey of the Swedish Hockey League yesterday, per a club announcement.
Montreal didn’t issue a qualifying offer to Norlinder when he was set to become a restricted free agent earlier this summer, relinquishing his NHL signing rights. But the team still had interest in retaining the blue liner as late as last week, when his agent told Swedish media that the Habs had made Norlinder an offer to return.
Norlinder declined a return to Montreal, though, instead choosing to return to the organization where he spent most of his development. Citing a desire for more offensive freedom, he reportedly reached an agreement with MoDo earlier in the week.
However, the deal wasn’t finished because they lacked the funds to sign him. After a short crowd-funding campaign, they garnered enough cash to land him.
The Canadiens brought Norlinder into the organization with the No. 64 overall pick in the 2019 draft. They let him bake for two more seasons in Sweden with MoDo and Frölunda HC before signing him to his entry-level contract during the 2021 offseason.
Montreal loaned Norlinder back to Frölunda in the SHL for 2021-22, which is when the first cracks in an otherwise solid development path up to that point began to emerge. The smooth-skating defender had been a reliable two-way presence to start his professional career overseas and had the point totals to back it up. However, he managed just two assists in 21 games with Frölunda during his first season under contract with the Habs.
The Canadiens recalled Norlinder from his loan after Frölunda’s season ended, giving him his first taste of NHL action. He was limited to 12:18 per game through six contests but managed to record his first and only NHL point and an assist, as well as a +2 rating, 2 PIMs, two shots, three blocks, and four hits.
Norlinder never got a recall after that initial NHL stint. He spent the final two seasons of his ELC strictly in the minors on assignment to the AHL’s Laval Rocket, where he struggled to the tune of nine points and a -14 rating in 50 games last season.
He’ll now look to rebuild his value with a resurgent offensive campaign. If he wants to return stateside, doing so could still land him NHL interest when his contract with MoDo runs out in 2026.
Maple Leafs Sign Steven Lorentz To PTO
Sep. 4: The Maple Leafs have officially invited Lorentz to camp on a PTO, per a team announcement Wednesday.
Sep. 3: Free agent center Steven Lorentz is expected to join the Maple Leafs on a professional tryout, Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet reports.
Lorentz, 28, remains unsigned over two months into free agency after playing a depth role in the Panthers’ Stanley Cup win last June. He suited up in 16 of their 24 playoff games, scoring twice and adding an assist while averaging a meager 7:07 per game.
The Ontario native played a more limited role in the regular season when he was a frequent healthy scratch. The depth pivot saw some spot duty on the penalty kill and had only one goal and two assists in 38 games.
It was Lorentz’s first and only season in Florida. The Panthers acquired him from the Sharks in a trade last summer that sent scoring winger Anthony Duclair to the Bay Area. He’s coming off a two-year, $2.1MM deal he signed with San Jose in 2022 after being acquired from the Hurricanes in the Brent Burns trade, potentially making Toronto his fourth team in the past four years.
The 6’4″, 205-lb forward will look to prove valuable in a depth role for the Leafs during training camp in hopes of a deal, likely a league-minimum one with a one-way structure. He hasn’t been assigned to the minors since before the COVID-19 pandemic, suiting up with Carolina’s AHL affiliate (then in Charlotte) from 2017 to 2020.
The Leafs aren’t teeming with salary cap space, but they have room for a potential league-minimum pickup like Lorentz. They have $1.275MM in projected space with two open roster spots, per PuckPedia.
In 230 NHL games over the past four seasons, Lorentz has 21 goals, 22 assists, 43 points, and a -26 rating, averaging 10:47 per game. He can play both center and left-wing and has posted a respectable 48.7% win rate in the dot through nearly 1,100 faceoffs.
Lorentz will compete with more veteran depth pieces like Alex Steeves and prospects like Easton Cowan and Fraser Minten for a spot on Toronto’s opening night roster.
Dominik Kubalík Signs In Switzerland
Unrestricted free agent winger Dominik Kubalík has agreed to join HC Ambrì-Piotta of the Swiss National League for this season, according to a team announcement. Should he land a deal stateside before Dec. 15, his contract has an NHL opt-out clause.
Kubalík, 29, played for Ambrì-Piotta for two seasons before coming to the NHL. He recorded 89 points in 78 games there across the 2017-18 and 2018-19 campaigns, playing a pivotal role in helping them avoid relegation to the second-tier Swiss League in 2018. The following season, he was named the National League’s MVP and led the circuit in scoring before landing an NHL deal the following summer.
Kubalík heads overseas following an incredibly disappointing 2023-24 season with the Senators. After four consecutive seasons of 30-plus points with the Blackhawks and Red Wings, he produced just 11 goals and four assists for 15 points in 74 games in Ottawa while averaging a career-low 12:07 per game with a -30 rating, tied with Jakob Chychrun for the worst on the team.
The Kings selected Kubalík with the 191st pick in 2013 and sent his rights to the Blackhawks nearly six years later, never signing him to an entry-level contract. He joined Chicago for the 2019-20 season, breaking out for 30 goals and 46 points in 68 games and finishing third in Calder Trophy voting.
After two more years of decent middle-six production in the Windy City, he signed a two-year, $5MM deal in Detroit as a UFA in 2022 after going non-tendered by the Hawks. He posted 20 goals and 45 points in 81 games for the Wings in 2022-23, his best production since his rookie season, but he was traded to the Sens last summer in the Alex DeBrincat deal.
For now, Kubalík hits pause on his NHL career after making 357 appearances with three teams, averaging 21 goals, 19 assists and 40 points per 82 games. He’s also coming off a strong showing at the 2024 World Championship, where he had five goals and three assists in 10 games for Czechia as he won his first gold medal on the international stage.