Leon Draisaitl Signs Eight-Year Extension With Oilers
1:09 p.m.: A whopping $104MM of Draisaitl’s $112MM total compensation will be paid via signing bonuses, PuckPedia reports. His base salary will be $1MM per season. He’ll earn $15.5MM in signing bonuses annually from 2025-26 through 2027-28. That figure drops to $13MM in 2028-29, then $11.5MM in 2029-30, then $11MM annually for the final three years of the deal.
9:16 a.m.: Superstar Oilers center Leon Draisaitl has signed an eight-year, $112MM extension to keep him in Edmonton through the 2032-33 season, the team announced. He’s now the NHL’s highest-paid player with an average annual value of $14MM, as initially reported by Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman.
Draisaitl has a full no-movement clause for the life of the contract, per Pierre LeBrun of TSN and The Athletic. He adds the deal carries a front-loaded structure, although the specific salary breakdown has yet to be reported.
The 28-year-old Draisaitl also lands the second-largest contract by total value in NHL history, trailing only Alex Ovechkin‘s 13-year, $124MM deal with the Capitals signed under the previous Collective Bargaining Agreement in 2008.
“This is a historic day for the Edmonton Oilers,” general manager Stan Bowman said in a team press release. “Leon’s commitment to our team, our city and Oilers fans everywhere cannot be overstated. His desire to help bring a Stanley Cup title home to Edmonton is central to everything he does both on and off the ice.”
While it was widely expected Draisaitl would sign a max-term extension to stay in Edmonton, few thought he’d be the first player to land a $14MM AAV. There was no guarantee he’d eclipse Auston Matthews‘ $13.25MM AAV to become the new highest-paid player in the league, let alone shatter it. However, since Bowman took the GM’s office in July, extension discussions have been reportedly smooth, which, in hindsight, should have been a strong indication that the Oilers were willing to shell out record-breaking cash to keep the German star in Edmonton.
Unlike his other generational teammate, Connor McDavid, Draisaitl wasn’t an impact piece immediately upon arriving in the NHL. The 2014 third-overall pick had just two goals and nine points in 37 games during his post-draft year. He developed into a high-end top-six piece over the coming years, routinely hitting over 20 goals and 70 points, but hadn’t quite captured the aura of a superstar.
That all changed in 2018-19. While the Oilers missed the playoffs for the 12th time in 13 years, it was a proper breakout campaign for Draisaitl, who led the team in goals (50) and finished second behind McDavid in points with 105. Since that season, Edmonton has made the playoffs every year, and Draisaitl has recorded or been on pace for over 100 points in an 82-game year. A two-time year-end All-Star, Draisaitl also took home the Art Ross, Hart, and Pearson awards/trophies during the 2019-20 season after leading the league with 67 assists and 110 points in 71 games.
The Cologne-born pivot is also one of the most prolific playoff performers in league history. His 108 points in 74 postseason games work out to 1.46 P/GP, which is fourth all-time among players with at least 50 games of playoff experience. Only Wayne Gretzky (1.84), Mario Lemieux (1.61), and McDavid (1.58) have produced more on a nightly basis when the games matter most. It’s especially impressive when considering Draisaitl has played through injuries for a good chunk of the past three postseasons.
For the rest of the league, they now have certainty that the best available potential 2025 unrestricted free agent won’t hit the open market. There’s a chance he could have landed even more money per season with the salary cap expected to rise to at least $92MM for 2025-26, but the total value likely would have been smaller with a seven-year maximum.
Even after declining to match the rich offer sheets levied by the Blues for Philip Broberg and Dylan Holloway last month, Bowman and the Oilers now find themselves in a seriously precarious salary cap situation for 2025-26. They already have a projected cap hit of $77.4MM, per PuckPedia, leaving them $14.6MM to re-sign pending RFA defenseman Evan Bouchard and fill at least three other roster spots (assuming a $92MM upper limit). 38.9% of next season’s spending is already dedicated solely to Draisaitl, McDavid, and Darnell Nurse.
As such, the Oilers’ directive to win a championship in the Draisaitl/McDavid era is clearer than it’s ever been in 2024-25. After falling one game short of their first Stanley Cup in over 30 years a few months ago, they’ll need to retrace their steps and find their way back to the Cup Final.
They’ll be able to score their way there after reloading offensively by adding names like Viktor Arvidsson and Jeff Skinner in free agency. However, question marks will remain on defense outside of their star pairing of Bouchard and Mattias Ekholm. There isn’t a ton of stability behind them, and while trade acquisition Ty Emberson should be a cost-effective replacement for Cody Ceci, declining play from Nurse is a significant concern.
Draisaitl will play out 2023-24 under his previous contract, earning $8MM in actual salary in the final season of the eight-year, $68MM deal he signed coming off his entry-level contract in 2017.
Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.
Bruins Sign Tyler Johnson To PTO
With training camps now less than three weeks away, it’s expected that there will be an uptick in PTO activity over the coming days as players look to catch on somewhere. The Bruins are getting involved in the tryout market as the team announced that they’ve signed veteran forward Tyler Johnson to a tryout agreement.
[Related: 2024 Professional Tryout Tracker]
The 34-year-old spent the last three seasons with Chicago after being acquired from Tampa Bay in a salary cap-clearing move. Staying healthy had been a challenge for Johnson in his time with the Blackhawks which certainly didn’t help his cause on the open market. Nonetheless, he managed to put up 32 points in 56 games in 2022-23 and followed that up with 17 goals and 14 assists in 67 contents last season while logging 15:32 per night.
Before that time, Johnson spent nine seasons with Tampa Bay, being a key secondary scorer for most of his tenure with them. Over his 12-year career, he has 193 goals and 238 assists in 738 games between the Lightning and Blackhawks. With that track record and a decent showing offensively when healthy with Chicago over the last two years, it’s a little surprising that he wasn’t able to secure a guaranteed contract for the upcoming season.
Earlier this month, we took a closer look at Johnson’s free agency and highlighted the Bruins as one of the possible fits. While Johnson has spent more time on the wing than down the middle in recent years, he can still play center and would represent some insurance on Matthew Poitras who missed 38 games last season due to shoulder troubles. If they want Poitras to ease in on the wing to start the season – or even start at AHL Providence – Johnson could serve as some low-cost insurance on that front.
At the moment, the Bruins have around $8.64MM in cap space, per PuckPedia. However, most of that will be earmarked for RFA goaltender Jeremy Swayman; they will need to sign him before they can get a better sense of what they might or might not be able to spend on a contract for Johnson or any other veteran free agents that they might have their eye on. In the meantime, Johnson will at least have a shot at suiting up in the preseason and making a case for a contract either with Boston or elsewhere.
Utah Signs Robert Bortuzzo
It has been a busy offseason for Utah as the former Coyotes get set for their first season in their new home. With training camp approaching, they’ve added some extra depth on the back end as the team announced (Twitter link) that they have signed defenseman Robert Bortuzzo to a one-year deal. PuckPedia adds (Twitter link) that it’s a two-way agreement that pays $775K in the NHL and $450K in the minors.
The 35-year-old is a veteran of 13 NHL seasons, spanning 560 games. Last season, Bortuzzo started the year in St. Louis but had a very limited role and spent considerable time as a healthy scratch. He was then acquired by the Islanders in December with New York dealing with considerable injuries at that time. Bortuzzo played a regular role after being acquired but then was injured himself, missing 28 games due to a lower-body issue. The veteran then returned to his third-pairing role for the stretch run and playoffs.
Between the two teams, Bortuzzo played in 27 regular season games last season. While he was held off the scoresheet entirely, he collected 51 blocked shots and 38 hits while averaging 13:44 per night. For his career, he has 74 points, 711 blocks, and 1,095 his to his credit while spending time with Pittsburgh, St. Louis, and New York.
Bortuzzo is the latest addition to a Utah back end that has undergone significant changes this summer. The team added Mikhail Sergachev and John Marino on the second day of the draft in trades with Tampa Bay and New Jersey and then inked veteran Ian Cole to a one-year, $3.1MM deal in free agency. The four newcomers join holdovers Sean Durzi, Juuso Valimaki, and Michael Kesselring on a much-improved blueline as the franchise looks to take a step forward toward emerging from its long-term rebuild.
Former NHL winger Scottie Upshall was the first to report the signing.
Hurricanes Re-Sign Seth Jarvis To Eight-Year Contract
Earlier this week, a report from The Fourth Period’s David Pagnotta indicated that the Hurricanes and RFA winger Seth Jarvis were nearing an agreement on a long-term contract. That is indeed the case as the team announced that the two sides have reached an eight-year, $63.2MM contract. GM Eric Tulsky released the following statement:
Seth is a cornerstone player for our franchise. He took another huge step last season, playing in all situations and displaying the skill and competitive drive that will make him a star in this league in the years to come.
Typically, the AAV of a contract is the total value divided by the number of years which in this case would be $7.9MM. However, Daily Faceoff’s Frank Seravalli (who first reported the deal) reports that there is a deferred signing bonus payment due July 1st, 2032, a day after the expiration of the agreement. By doing so, the contract’s AAV will actually check in at $7.5MM. Chris Johnston of TSN and The Athletic adds (Twitter link) that the deal contains $30MM of signing bonus money, the breakdown of which is not yet known.
The contract will cover the four remaining RFA-eligible seasons plus his first four seasons of UFA eligibility. It’s only those last four years that will be eligible for trade protection.
The 22-year-old was selected 13th overall by the Hurricanes in 2020. Jarvis spent his post-draft campaign in the WHL and then made the jump to the NHL at 19. He put up 17 goals and 23 assists in 68 games in his rookie season and followed that up with 14 goals and 25 helpers in 82 games in his sophomore campaign.
Last season was a breakout performance for Jarvis. He set career-highs with 33 goals and 34 assists in 81 games while averaging 18:45 per night. His 67 points were good for second on the team in scoring behind only Sebastian Aho. Jarvis was also one of Carolina’s top scorers during the postseason as he had five goals and four helpers in 11 contests, putting him third in team scoring. That certainly gave him some extra bargaining power heading into contract negotiations.
Carolina went into these discussions with roughly $6.44MM in cap space, per PuckPedia so this agreement will put them around $1MM over the Upper Limit. However, with Jesper Fast expected to miss the entire season after having neck surgery, the Hurricanes will be able to put him on LTIR, getting them back into cap compliance. They can also opt to carry a roster with fewer than the maximum of 23 players which would allow them to get under the Upper Limit that way and still bank in-season cap room.
Contracts with deferred money are quite rare in the NHL but it’s actually the second time Carolina has used it this offseason. Seravalli notes in his report about Jarvis’ contract that there is some deferred signing bonus money in Jaccob Slavin‘s contract as well, one that moves the AAV from the reported $6.461MM to $6.396MM. These structures have been approved by the NHL so there won’t be any concerns about this contract getting vetoed.
Johnston noted (Twitter link) that multiple teams attempted to use this structure in talks this summer, including Vegas in their attempts to re-sign Jonathan Marchessault. With Carolina now successfully doing this twice, it will be interesting to see if it results in an uptick in these types of agreements moving forward.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
International Notes: Curran, Kirk, Studenič
Veteran defenseman Kodie Curran is continuing his lengthy career overseas. Swiss club HC Ambrì-Piotta announced Friday that they’ve signed him through the November international break with an option to extend the deal for the rest of the season.
Curran, 34, was never drafted and wound his way through various leagues, going from the Canadian university system to the AHL and ECHL, also making stops in Denmark and Norway before ending up in a starring role for Rögle BK of the Swedish Hockey League, one of the world’s best circuits. He landed his first NHL deal as a 30-year-old undrafted free agent signed by the Ducks in 2020.
However, that contract with Anaheim didn’t result in an NHL call-up. Curran spent his two-year, $2MM deal buried in the minors, recording 29 points (7 G, 22 A) in 61 games with the AHL’s San Diego Gulls before going pointless in 11 games with the AHL’s Providence Bruins after his NHL rights were dealt to Boston at the 2022 trade deadline.
Curran has spent the last two seasons in the Kontinental Hockey League with Russia’s Metallurg Magnitogorsk and Belarus’ Dinamo Minsk. He hasn’t been able to replicate his past offensive success, posting a more conservative 50 points (14 G, 36 A) in 122 games with a -5 rating. The 6’2″, 201-lb puck mover will look to impress in a depth role with Ambrì-Piotta and earn a spot on the team for the rest of the season. There, he joins former NHLers Tim Heed, Jakob Lilja, Philippe Maillet, and Gilles Senn.
More notes from the international stage:
- Former Coyotes prospect Liam Kirk already has a home for this season with Germany’s Eisbären Berlin, but he’s still looking to put himself back on the map in hopes of another NHL deal. The 24-year-old’s performance for Great Britain at the ongoing final qualification tournament for the 2026 Winter Olympics could go a long way toward doing that, and he already has a goal in the Brits’ lone outing – unfortunately, it was a 3-1 loss to Denmark yesterday. The 2018 seventh-rounder impressed in World Championship action earlier this year, posting four points in six games, but it wasn’t enough for GB to avoid relegation back to the Division 1A tournament for 2025. Kirk also had three goals and seven assists in three games at last year’s Olympic pre-qualifiers. Kirk, who’s aiming to be the first born-and-trained British NHLer, was strong in Czech league action last season with 30 points in 52 games for HC Litvínov.
- Ex-depth NHLer Marián Studenič was supposed to help his native Slovakia qualify for one of the three spots remaining for the Olympics, but the country’s federation announced the 25-year-old abruptly left the roster due to a disagreement over his role. The winger was a Group VI UFA this summer and opted to head overseas, signing a two-year deal with Sweden’s Färjestad BK after spending the last six years playing professionally in the Devils, Stars and Kraken organizations. He posted six points in 46 NHL games over the past four seasons and had 44 points in 64 games on assignment to the AHL’s Coachella Valley Firebirds while under contract with Seattle last year.
Flyers Sign Eetu Makiniemi To PTO
The Flyers will have some extra goaltending depth on hand at training camp. The agency for Eetu Makiniemi, WD Sports and Entertainment, announced (Twitter link) that the netminder has accepted a PTO offer and will attend training camp with Philadelphia. Team reporter Bill Meltzer relayed last week that the Flyers were interested in bringing Makiniemi to camp.
[Related: 2024 Professional Tryout Tracker]
The 25-year-old was originally drafted in the fourth round by Carolina in 2017 but after spending one year in their farm system, he was dealt to San Jose in 2022 as part of the Brent Burns trade. Makiniemi spent the last two years in the Sharks’ system, primarily at the AHL level but he did make two appearances with the big club, putting up a 2.13 GAA and a .906 SV%.
Last season, Makiniemi played in 18 games with AHL San Jose, putting up a 3.14 GAA with a .900 SV%. He also suited up for three contests with ECHL Wichita, posting a 3.39 GAA and a .907 SV% in those outings. At the end of the contract, he became a Group Six unrestricted free agent.
There has been some uncertainty surrounding Flyers prospect Alexei Kolosov who is believed to be seeking a return to the KHL for the upcoming season while the organization does not appear to be willing to loan him back. Veteran Cal Petersen is expected to be the starter with AHL Lehigh Valley (assuming he clears waivers once again in training camp) while the Phantoms have added Keith Petruzzelli and re-signed Parker Gahagen to give themselves some insurance between the pipes. Makiniemi will now try to play his way into that mix on what would likely ultimately be an AHL contract.
Senators Sign Nick Cousins
3:30 P.M.: Ottawa has made the one-year signing of Cousins official.
2:30 P.M.: The Senators are signing free agent forward Nick Cousins to a one-year deal worth $800K, Frank Seravalli of Daily Faceoff reports.
Cousins, 31, is a 10-year NHL veteran and reached UFA status this summer after completing a two-year, $2.2MM deal he signed with the Panthers in 2022. He played in 33 of Florida’s 45 playoff games over the last two years as they captured the Eastern Conference championship in 2023 before winning the Stanley Cup this year for the first time in franchise history. This was Cousins’ fifth go-around on the UFA market, going unqualified three times earlier in his career.
Overall, the forward has appeared in 592 regular-season games with Philadelphia, Arizona, Montreal, Vegas, Nashville, and Florida, averaging 10 goals, 16 assists, 26 points, and 127 shots on goal per 82 games while seeing 12:25 on the ice per contest. Cousins, who can play both center and left wing, fell out of the Panthers’ regular lineup last postseason and only appeared in 12 of 24 games, posting a lone assist and a -1 rating with 20 PIMs while averaging 8:42 per game.
Known mainly as a physical presence with some offensive upside, Cousins recorded 16 goals and 42 points in 148 regular-season games during his two years with the Panthers. His 130 hits in 69 games last season were a career-high, finishing sixth on the club. After over six weeks into free agency without landing a deal, Cousins changed his representation earlier this month. He’s now represented by Newport’s Craig Oster, who also landed Noah Gregor a one-year, $850K deal with the Sens earlier in free agency.
The Sens have $1.1MM in projected cap space with an open roster spot after the signing, per PuckPedia. With no notable RFAs needing new deals, they’re in an excellent place to add another depth piece on the open market before training camp.
With Ottawa’s top nine largely set after the signings of Michael Amadio and David Perron in July, Cousins will compete for fourth-line duties with Gregor, Angus Crookshank and Zack MacEwen as his principal competition. Other depth pieces like Matthew Highmore and Zack Ostapchuk are likely ticketed for AHL Belleville to begin the season but will likely be given a long look in camp.
Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.
Atlantic Notes: Swayman, Stützle, LeBreton Flats, Leenders
Speculation floating around that Bruins RFA netminder Jeremy Swayman wants a $10MM average annual value on his next deal is likely unfounded, Frank Seravalli of Daily Faceoff said on SN960 The FAN’s Big Show on Wednesday.
Swayman’s camp is holding out for an AAV in the $8.5MM range on a long-term deal, while the Bruins are holding firm just north of $6MM per season, per Seravalli. He adds there hasn’t been much progress toward a resolution since those numbers were first exchanged earlier this summer.
“I think that’s a pretty sizeable gap that hasn’t been bridged yet and with the trade of Linus Ullmark, it’s obvious that Swayman is such a big part of what the Bruins’ future looks like and the stability of their core because the goaltending has been the backbone of that team,” Seravalli said. “But if you have a philosophical difference on what you think your goaltender should make, and if you thought that with the numbers he’s posted that he was going to be in that range, I can understand why there’s been a disconnect there.”
Swayman, 26 in November, posted a .916 SV%, 2.53 GAA, and three shutouts with a 25-10-8 record last season in 44 appearances (43 starts).
Here’s more from the Atlantic:
- Senators star center Tim Stützle has changed agents, per PuckPedia. After signing his eight-year, $66.8MM extension in 2022 under Octagon’s Ben Hankinson, he’ll now be represented by longtime NHLer Claude Lemieux of 4sports Hockey. He becomes Lemieux’s second client on the Sens, joining goaltender Mads Søgaard. Lemieux’s notable body of work includes Timo Meier‘s eight-year, $70.4MM deal with the Devils, Hampus Lindholm‘s eight-year, $52MM deal in Boston, and Joel Eriksson Ek‘s eight-year, $42MM deal with the Wild.
- Still with Ottawa, the franchise is still in negotiations with the National Capital Commission on a memorandum of understanding regarding their plan to build a new arena in the LeBreton Flats neighborhood downtown, team president Cyril Leeder said (via Wayne Scanlan of Sportsnet). They’ve got less than a month to complete them with their temporary agreement with the city expiring on Sep. 20. Bruce Garrioch of the Ottawa Sun said in April that public parking was the largest concern with the current plan.
- Sabres goaltending prospect Ryerson Leenders will have a new home for junior hockey this season. The Ontario Hockey League’s Brantford Bulldogs acquired him from the Brampton Steelheads today for a whopping eight draft picks, per a team announcement. Buffalo selected Leenders, 18, with the 219th overall pick in this summer’s draft. He had a .909 SV% in 46 games for the Steelheads last season, the best in the league.
Hurricanes Sign Seven Players To PTOs
Today, the Hurricanes announced their roster for this year’s regional rookie camp, the 2024 NHL Rookie Showcase hosted by the Predators. Seven of their 22 players weren’t previously in the organization. They will attend via professional tryout agreements, some of which may last to training camp or end after the showcase.
Carter Kowalyk, the lone defenseman of the group, will look to make an impression before returning to the Western Hockey League’s Kelowna Rockets for his final season of junior hockey. The 19-year-old has been passed over in back-to-back NHL drafts, marred by injuries and stuck on basement-dwelling teams. Last season, a trade sent him to the playoff-bound Rockets from the lowly Edmonton Oil Kings, boosting his stock. The 6’3″, 196-lb stay-at-home defender ended the season with seven points, 25 PIMs and a +13 rating in 26 games in Kelowna, and he’ll look to factor into heavy minutes there in 2024-25. A strong showing with the Canes now could earn him an invite back to development camp next summer or earn him an entry-level contract.
Zakary Lavoie, 20, is a diminutive right-winger who plays much larger than his 5’10”, 179-lb frame would suggest. The Ottawa native is a skilled shooter, posting 31 goals in 67 Ontario Hockey League games last season, split between the Niagara IceDogs and Brantford Bulldogs. If he returns to Brantford, he’ll take up one of their three overage slots, so he could be on the hunt to land a professional deal in the coming weeks. Whether that’s an entry-level agreement with Carolina or an AHL deal with their affiliate, the Chicago Wolves, remains to be seen if the Canes opt to keep him in the organization.
Connor Lockhart, 21, has his junior days behind him now after completing what would have been his fifth OHL season if not for the COVID-19 pandemic. A sixth-round pick of the Canucks in 2021, he became a free agent over a year ago when his signing rights lapsed on July 1, 2023. Lockhart has produced over a point per game over the last two years, ending his season with 52 points in 45 contests for the Oshawa Generals after an early-season trade from Peterborough. The 5’9″ center was suspended by the league for eight games in February following an investigation into unspecified conduct by the Durham, Ontario Regional Police, which has since been closed.
Skyler Brind’Amour, 25, is already signed to an AHL pact for next season with the Charlotte Checkers, the Panthers’ affiliate. But Florida doesn’t own his NHL rights, making him eligible to attend rookie and training camps leaguewide as offers come in. The Raleigh native and son of Hurricanes coach Rod Brind’Amour won an NCAA championship with Quinnipiac in 2023 but has had trouble adjusting to the pro game, posting just three goals and eight points in 54 contests with the Checkers last season. His chances of landing an NHL deal are slim, but they won’t be better anywhere else than in Carolina, an organization synonymous with the Brind’Amour name.
Braydon McCallum, 18, was draft-eligible for the first time this year but wasn’t selected. Briefly a teammate of Lockhart’s with the Peterborough Petes, the 5’10”, 165-lb forward finished third on the team in scoring last season with 41 points (18 G, 23 A) in 62 games and led them (and the OHL as a whole) with 128 PIMs. He’s a tenacious forechecker with a good shot and has a decent chance of landing an ELC with Carolina before heading back to the Petes for 2024-25.
Luca Testa, 18, fits a similar profile to McCallum. Also draft-eligible for the first time in 2024 and passed over, he’s a physical center but takes fewer penalties with slightly less offensive upside. In 48 games for the Bulldogs last year, he had 14 goals and 11 assists for 25 points with a +6 rating.
Rounding out the group is 20-year-old left-winger Antonin Verreault, an explosive but undersized offensive talent who’s now been passed over three drafts in a row. The 5’8″, 163-lb forward led the QMJHL in assists (71) and points (107) last season in 68 games with the Rouyn-Noranda Huskies. He’s the type of talent the Hurricanes often take swings on and is perhaps the likeliest of the group to end up with a contract as a result of their tryout.
Canucks Hire Justin Pogge As AHL Goalie Coach
The Abbotsford Canucks will only have gone five days without a goaltending coach as the team has moved quickly to fill the void left by Marko Torenius‘ promotion to the Vancouver Canucks. Special assistant to the general manager with Vancouver and general manager of Abbotsford, Ryan Johnson, announced the team hired longtime veteran goaltender Justin Pogge as the organization’s next goaltending coach.
Pogge originally found his way to the American Hockey League in the 2006-07 season after a four-year career in the Western Hockey League split between the Prince George Cougars and Calgary Hitmen. He was drafted 90th overall by the Toronto Maple Leafs in the 2004 NHL Draft before finishing his WHL tenure with a 79-49-12 record with a .919 save percentage. Pogge also helped Team Canada win the 2006 IIHF World Junior Championships on the heels of a .952 SV% and six wins which certainly elevated his prospect pedigree heading into his professional career.
His days as a decent goaltending prospect would summarily end there as Pogge only managed seven NHL appearances over the next six years before continuing his career overseas. He fared as a much better goaltender in the AHL albeit off a larger sample size. The Fort McMurray, Alberta native owned a record 120-94-24 record in the AHL and a career .902 SV% and 2.81 GAA with the Toronto, Anaheim Ducks, Carolina Hurricanes, and Phoenix Coyotes organizations.
Pogge would bounce around Italy, Sweden, Russia, and Germany over the next several years before retiring as a member of the DEL’s Grizzlys Wolfsburg in 2022-23. The longtime netminder didn’t stay away from the game long after his retirement as he immediately began working as a goaltending consultant for the Columbus Blue Jackets in addition to Team Canada’s World Championship and Hlinka Gretzky Cup teams.
He will now have the opportunity to have quite the impact at the highest level of the Canucks’ minor league system as the return date of starting netminder Thatcher Demko remains up in the air. He will likely work closest with Nikita Tolopino this season as the only true goaltending prospect from Vancouver’s pipeline that has graduated to the AHL.