International Notes: Filppula, Has, Andrighetto
Triple Gold Club member Valtteri Filppula appears to be returning home for what is likely his final professional season. The 40-year-old is expected to join Jokerit of Finland’s second-tier Mestis for 2024-25, Sami Hoffrén and Marko Lempinen of Helsingen Sanomat report.
Filppula, a third-round pick of the Red Wings back in 2002, won the Stanley Cup with them six years later as part of a 16-year, 1,056-game NHL career. Split between the Wings, Lightning, Flyers and Islanders, he amassed 197 goals, 333 assists, 530 points, a -4 rating, and a 50.5% career win rate in the dot in the regular season.
The two-way pivot returned to Europe after becoming a free agent in 2021, and he’s spent the last three seasons in Switzerland with Genève-Servette HC of the National League. He was a premier offensive presence there, even in his late 30s, scoring 47 goals and 84 assists for 131 points in 145 games. But after a pair of seasons around a point per game, his production dropped off to 33 points in 51 games last year.
Filppula was a member of the Finnish national team that won gold at the Winter Olympics and the World Championship in 2022, making him the first Finn to win both in addition to a Stanley Cup. He now returns to Jokerit, where he played for two seasons before coming to the NHL in 2005.
The Helsinki-based franchise was once one of the top clubs in Europe, but their decision to leave the top Finnish league for Russia’s Kontinental Hockey League in 2013 proved fateful. They withdrew from the KHL midseason in 2022 following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and missed 2022-23 entirely before restarting operations in Mestis last year.
More notable items from abroad:
- Former Capitals defense prospect Martin Has has signed a tryout with HC Plzen of the Czech Extraliga, per a team announcement. A fifth-round pick back in 2019, Has never rose above the ECHL level in the Washington organization, spending 2022-23 with the South Carolina Stingrays before his signing rights expired, making him a UFA. Has, 23, spent last season with the ECHL’s Fort Wayne Komets, where the 6’4″ right-shot was limited to five points and a -14 rating in 62 games. The Czech native will now look to latch on in one of the premier European professional leagues.
- It doesn’t appear that an NHL comeback is in the cards for Sven Andrighetto, as he’s inked a four-year extension with the Swiss National League club ZSC Lions. Andrighetto, 31, is a Zurich native, and he had 31 points in 40 games for his hometown club last year before leading them to an NL championship. The 2013 third-round pick of the Canadiens scored 31 goals and 83 points in 216 NHL games with Montreal and Colorado between 2014 and 2019.
Jakub Vrana Joins Capitals On PTO
The Capitals are bringing in free-agent winger Jakub Vrana on a PTO for training camp, per a team announcement.
It’s a homecoming of sorts for Vrana, who the Caps drafted 14th overall in 2014. The 6’0″, 195-lb winger once looked to be well on his way to becoming a top-six fixture in the nation’s capital, recording back-to-back seasons of 24 and 25 goals just before the COVID-19 pandemic. But Washington decided to part ways with him the following season, trading him to the Red Wings at the 2021 deadline as part of a package that fetched them Anthony Mantha.
Things started well for Vrana in Detroit. He finished 2020-21 on a tear, recording eight goals and three assists for 11 points in 11 games. An RFA that summer, he inked a three-year, $15.75MM deal that looked to be good value for a player who had established himself as a consistent 20-goal threat.
However, a shoulder injury sustained during training camp in the fall cost him most of 2021-22, a setback he’s never truly recovered from. Vrana played just 31 games for Detroit after the surgery amid a months-long stint in the NHL/NHLPA Player Assistance Program and multiple minor-league assignments, culminating in a trade to the Blues at the 2023 deadline.
Once again, early returns were strong for Vrana after a change of scenery. He averaged 15:10 per game across 20 appearances for St. Louis to close the season, his highest usage since his post-deadline stint with Detroit two years earlier. He responded with 10 goals and 14 points in 20 games, finishing second on the team in goals during that span.
Unfortunately, the momentum didn’t carry over into last season. Vrana started the season back in a bottom-six role and had just two goals and six points in 19 games before the Blues placed him on waivers in mid-December. He cleared without incident and, aside from a brief call-up in January, spent the rest of the season on assignment to the AHL’s Springfield Thunderbirds.
Vrana had good numbers on the farm, posting 16 goals and 20 assists for 36 points in 42 games. His 0.86 points per game ranked second behind Adam Gaudette‘s 1.06. But after failing to land an everyday role in St. Louis, it wasn’t surprising to see them let him walk to unrestricted free agency this summer.
Now 28, Vrana faces an uphill climb to earn a spot on the NHL roster out of camp with the Capitals. He’ll be in competition with a pair of recent first-round picks in Hendrix Lapierre and Ivan Miroshnichenko, and he also may need to supersede UFA pickup Taylor Raddysh, who had 14 points in 73 games with the Blackhawks last season. There will be a spot for him if he can show enough flashes of his pre-surgery form, though, and he could end up being a bargain-bin pickup on a two-way deal.
In 284 games with Washington from 2016 to 2021, Vrana had 76 goals, 81 assists, 157 points, and a +36 rating in 284 regular-season games. He shot 13.1% and averaged 13:41 per game. He contributed three goals and five assists in 23 playoff games during the Capitals’ 2018 Stanley Cup win but had no points in 15 combined playoff games in 2019 and 2020.
Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.
Logan Brown To Sign PTO With Lightning
Free-agent center Logan Brown is set to sign a PTO with the Lightning, Andy Strickland of Bally Sports Midwest relays.
The 2016 first-round pick inked a two-way deal with Tampa Bay last summer but sustained a hip injury in training camp that required surgery and cost him the entire 2023-24 season. The 26-year-old was free to sign anywhere after the Lightning opted not to issue him a qualifying offer by the June 30 deadline, but with no interest from other teams for a guaranteed contract, he’ll stick with the Bolts on a tryout.
Brown, selected by the Senators with the No. 11 pick eight years ago, has only appeared in 99 NHL regular season games. He’s totaled seven goals and 19 assists for 26 points while averaging 10:32 per game.
The North Carolina native played parts of four seasons in Ottawa before a trade to St. Louis in 2021. He played a career-high 39 games upon arrival in 2021-22 and looked to be a more impactful contributor in 2022-23, but an upper-body injury limited him to 30 games. The Blues didn’t tender him a qualifying offer the following summer, making him a UFA for the first time.
Brown’s size and strength has always been his most effective asset, checking in at 6’6″ and 227 lbs. He’s produced strong offensive numbers at both the junior and AHL levels, averaging 0.85 points per game across 115 minor-league appearances since turning pro, but he hasn’t been able to convert it into success on the scoresheet at the NHL level.
If Brown can successfully shake off the rust in training camp, he’s a strong candidate to earn a two-way deal and look to have success in a depth role in Tampa Bay. He’ll join a group contending for bottom-six spots that includes Mitchell Chaffee, Jesse Ylonen, and 2022 No. 11 pick Conor Geekie, fresh off being acquired from the Utah Hockey Club.
Stars Sign Magnus Hellberg To Two-Way Deal
Aug. 14: Hellberg’s deal carries an NHL salary of $775K and an AHL salary of $450K with a $475K guarantee, PuckPedia reports.
Aug. 13: The Stars have signed UFA goaltender Magnus Hellberg to a two-way contract, per a team announcement.
Hellberg’s appealing size, at 6’6″ and 209 lbs, helped him get drafted by the Predators in the second round in 2011. The 33-year-old has since solidified himself as a journeyman, dressing for six NHL teams, five AHL teams, and six different pro teams in China, Russia and Sweden.
After his first stint in North America, split between the Predators and Rangers organizations from 2012 to 2017, Hellberg headed to the Kontinental Hockey League for a five-year span. Suiting up for Kunlun Red Star, SKA St. Petersburg and HK Sochi, he put up a 2.00 GAA, .927 SV%, 24 SOs, and an 81-64-14 record before returning to the NHL with the Red Wings at the end of the 2021-22 season, recording a win in his lone appearance.
The two-time KHL All-Star landed with the Kraken as a free agent a few months later, kicking off a tumultuous 2022-23 campaign. Seattle attempted to assign him to the AHL to begin the season, but he was claimed off waivers by the Senators. He played once for Ottawa, recording a .935 SV% in a win, before landing on waivers again in early November and being re-claimed by the Kraken. He dressed as a backup for Seattle on multiple occasions but never entered a game before he was placed on waivers for a third time around Thanksgiving, returning to where his NHL comeback started six months ago in Detroit.
Hellberg remained in Hockeytown as a backup/third-string option for the remainder of the season, only seeing AHL ice on a conditioning stint. He struggled behind a porous Red Wings defense in his longest look at the NHL level, posting a 4-8-1 record, .885 SV%, 3.29 GAA, and -8.2 GSAA in 13 starts and four relief appearances.
He then signed with the Penguins upon becoming a free agent again in 2023, and this time cleared waivers to begin the season. He did well as Pittsburgh’s third-string netminder, posting a .905 SV% in 19 games with AHL Wilkes-Barre/Scranton and a .922 SV% in three NHL games before the Panthers acquired him at the trade deadline to shore up their goaltending depth. Hellberg didn’t see any NHL looks with Florida and ended the season with their AHL affiliate, the Charlotte Checkers, where he had a 2.34 GAA, .898 SV%, 1 SO, and a 5-2-0 record in eight appearances.
The big Swede now joins his seventh NHL franchise. He’ll likely hit the waiver wire again during the preseason, and if he clears, he’ll head to Dallas’ AHL affiliate, the Texas Stars, to serve as their starter. He’ll sit third on the organizational depth chart behind starter Jake Oettinger and UFA signing Casey DeSmith, who’ll serve as his backup.
Financial terms of Hellberg’s two-way deal weren’t disclosed, but it likely carries a league-minimum NHL salary of $775K.
International Notes: Mendel, Petrovsky, Bellerive
Free agent defenseman Griffin Mendel is considering a move to Czechia’s Rytiri Kladno after failing to land a qualifying offer from the Hurricanes earlier this summer, sources tell Elite Prospects.
Mendel, 25, spent most of last season on loan to the AHL’s Chicago Wolves after signing a two-way contract with Carolina in July 2023. Undrafted, Mendel played four seasons of collegiate hockey at the University of Denver and played a fifth year for Quinnipiac before turning pro on an AHL deal with the Wolves in 2022. He impressed enough in his first professional season, playing in all 72 regular-season games alongside Carolina’s prospects and recording 19 points, to earn his first NHL pact.
But Mendel slipped out of an everyday role with the Wolves last season. The 6’6″, 220-lb defender was limited to 44 appearances, recording two goals, six assists, eight points, 35 PIMs, and a -9 rating. He spent a brief time on assignment to the ECHL’s Norfolk Admirals, with whom the Hurricanes had a working agreement last season, posting six points and a +3 rating in eight games there.
Without much of a path to NHL time, he’ll look to carve out a role overseas. In doing so, he may join the long list of players to suit up alongside Jaromir Jagr professionally. The 52-year-old will return to Kladno for his eighth straight season since leaving the NHL in 2017. It’ll mark Jagr’s 37th straight season playing professionally, likely to last as a record for quite some time.
More updates from the other side of the Atlantic Ocean:
- Former Wild forward prospect Servac Petrovsky has found a safety net for this season with Czechia’s Bili Tygri Liberec, where the club says he’s been participating in training camp and preseason on a tryout basis. Petrovsky, 20, was a sixth-round pick of Minnesota in 2022 but became a free agent in June after failing to land an entry-level contract following the close of his junior career with the OHL’s Owen Sound Attack. He might still have an opportunity to land an NHL contract, though, as the Czech club noted he’ll be attending rookie camp with the Utah Hockey Club in hopes of earning a deal. If he doesn’t, though, Liberec confirmed they’ll sign him for 2024-25. Petrovsky had 55 points in 57 games with Owen Sound last season and was electric at the 2024 World Juniors for his native Slovakia, leading them in scoring with five goals and four assists in five games.
- After a tumultuous 2023-24 campaign, AHL mainstay Jordy Bellerive is continuing his career overseas with Sweden’s AIK, the club announced in a press release. The 25-year-old forward began last season on a contract with the Flyers’ affiliate, the Lehigh Valley Phantoms, but was traded twice during the season and ended up logging time with the San Jose Barracuda and the Syracuse Crunch. Once an undrafted free agent signing by the Penguins, Bellerive struggled to produce with just 12 points in 59 games across the three clubs. He hasn’t been affiliated with an NHL club since being non-tendered by Pittsburgh in 2022.
Predators Trade Cody Glass To Penguins
The Nashville Predators have traded centerman Cody Glass to the Pittsburgh Penguins, per Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman. The Penguins have confirmed the deal, sharing that they’ve acquired Glass, a 2025 third-round pick, and a 2026 sixth-round pick in exchange for minor-league forward Jordan Frasca.
Glass was the sixth-overall pick in the 2017 NHL Draft, and the first draft pick for the Vegas Golden Knights franchise, though injuries have kept him from making too much of a big-league impact just yet. Glass scored 22 points in 66 games across two seasons with Vegas, filling a menial role and never doing much to reap the opportunity given to him. The lagging opportunity sparked a 2021 trade to the Nashville Predators, who were much more willing to give Glass a commendable role in the lineup. He vindicated that recognition with 14 goals and 35 points in 72 games during the 2022-23 season. That scoring pace carried into this past season, though one upper-body injury and one lower-body injury were enough to limit Glass to just 13 points and 41 games.
Nashville has quickly filled most of their notable roles on offense with summer additions of Steven Stamkos and Jonathan Marchessault – and the emergence of depth pieces like Thomas Novak. That’s left Glass on the outside looking in, and now catalysts a move to the Pittsburgh Penguins, where he’ll be one of just three forwards under the age of 26. Glass might not get much more lineup certainty with the Penguins, who also added Kevin Hayes and Blake Lizotte this summer. The crowd created by those additions could inspire Pittsburgh to instead deploy Glass at right-wing, where their depth is shallow behind Bryan Rust. That change would put Glass in a much more manageable competition with Jesse Puljujarvi, Rickard Rakell, and Valtteri Puustinen. Winning that position battle could land Glass a lucrative spot next to Evgeni Malkin – potentially enough to revitalize his former offensive prowess, or so Pittsburgh will hope.
Meanwhile, Frasca will join the Predators organization as minor-league depth. He earned a promotion to the AHL after scoring 33 points in 40 ECHL games last season, though he’s still without a point through 11 career AHL games. Pittsburgh signed Frasca as an undrafted free-agent in 2022, inking him to a three-year, $2.8MM entry-level deal set to expire after next season.
Pennsylvania Notes: Crosby, Drysdale, Bernard, Sedley
Penguins fans are still waiting on confirmation that Sidney Crosby has signed an extension. Early last month, Rob Rossi of The Athletic reported that a three-year deal in the $10MM AAV range was close to being finalized, but nothing came across the wire. Speculation then ran rampant that he might ink a deal to keep him in Pittsburgh past this season on his birthday, Aug. 7, but that date also came and went without any news.
It’s a situation that has the potential to cast a dark cloud over the Penguins’ season if Crosby remains without a new contract when training camp begins, Josh Yohe of The Athletic writes. “This isn’t good for ticket sales,” Yohe opines. “It’s not good for corporate sponsorships. That lack of buzz around the Penguins right now is deafening, but it grows a little louder every day that passes without Crosby signing a new deal. He’s the Penguins’ heartbeat. He keeps the organization financially stable.”
Aside from the lack of any recent news, there’s no real indication that the relationship between Crosby’s camp and the Penguins’ front office, led by general manager Kyle Dubas, has fractured in the slightest. Both sides have still maintained constant public messaging that signing an extension is their top priority. The 37-year-old is still the team’s most impactful player by a wide margin, coming off a 42-goal, 94-point season in 2023-24.
More notes out of the Keystone State:
- The Flyers are entering their first full season with defenseman Jamie Drysdale in tow. The 22-year-old defenseman was one half of a blockbuster swap with the Ducks last January, heading to Philly in exchange for the signing rights to 2022 fifth-overall pick Cutter Gauthier. After again struggling to stay in the lineup last season due to injuries, Drysdale enters a make-or-break 2024-25 campaign that will likely set the tone for the rest of his tenure with the Flyers, Charlie O’Connor of PHLY Sports writes (subscription required).
- The Flyers’ AHL affiliate, the Lehigh Valley Phantoms, have signed Xavier Bernard and Sam Sedley to contracts for the 2024-25 campaign, per a team announcement. Bernard, 24, was a fourth-round pick of the Devils in 2018 but never signed his entry-level contract. He’s spent the past few seasons bouncing between the AHL and ECHL, most recently in the Oilers organization with the Bakersfield Condors and Fort Wayne Komets. He spent nearly all of 2023-24 in the ECHL with Fort Wayne, where the 6’4″ left-shot had 16 points, 92 PIMs and a +23 rating in 64 games. Sedley, meanwhile, is entering his first professional season after five years with the OHL’s Owen Sound Attack. The 21-year-old had been invited to multiple Flyers rookie camps in the past. The diminutive right-shot defender led Owen Sound defensemen in scoring last year with 63 points in 64 games.
AHL’s San Jose Barracuda Sign Colin White
The Sharks’ AHL affiliate, the San Jose Barracuda, has signed UFA center Colin White to a one-year contract, according to a team press release.
White, a former first-round pick of the Senators who was bought out by Ottawa in 2022, signed a two-way deal with the Penguins last October after attending training camp on a PTO. He was immediately waived and assigned to the AHL for the first time since 2018.
The 27-year-old embarked on a mediocre run with the Penguins’ affiliate in Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, posting 10 points (5 G, 5 A) in 21 games before Pittsburgh called him up in January. White played 11 games with the Penguins after the call-up but failed to record a point and logged a -2 rating while averaging just 9:57 per game.
White was waived again in late February and claimed by the Canadiens. It was more of the same in Montreal, where he had no points, a -3 rating and averaged just 9:15 per game through 17 appearances. He also struggled immensely in the faceoff dot, winning just 36 of 108 draws (33.3%).
It was no surprise to see White not retained by the Habs, and it’s not too surprising he’s had to settle for a minor-league contract after a difficult run. Since getting bought out by the Sens, White has just eight goals and 15 points in 96 games over the past two years with the Canadiens, Panthers and Penguins. It’s a far cry from the 14 goals, 27 assists and 41 points he scored in 71 games during his rookie campaign with Ottawa in 2018-19, which earned him an ill-fated six-year, $28.5MM contract marred by injuries and declining play.
While White will suit up with the Sharks’ prospects and depth veterans this fall, he can sign with any NHL team should he attract interest. A strong run of play from the No. 21 overall pick in 2015 could land him an NHL deal at some point during the season, but he’d have to clear waivers to return to the minors after doing so. He’ll also likely receive a training camp invite from the Sharks, who could opt to sign him to a two-way contract.
Nail Yakupov Signs With KHL’s Kunlun Red Star
Free agent winger Nail Yakupov is sticking in the Kontinental Hockey League for the seventh year in a row, as he signed a one-year deal with China’s Kunlun Red Star today (X link). It’s the third KHL team of the past three seasons for the 2012 first-overall pick.
Yakupov’s story as a draft bust is well-documented. Now 30, the 5’11”, 196-lb speedster was pegged to be a building block for the Oilers after lighting up the Ontario Hockey League with 170 points in 107 games across his two pre-draft seasons. But the Russia native flamed out after a strong rookie season, limited to 111 points (50 G, 61 A) in 252 games for Edmonton before they traded him to the Blues in 2016. After one year in St. Louis and a last-ditch effort to revive his NHL career with the Avalanche in 2017-18, Yakupov headed home at just 24 years old.
Since returning home, Yakupov’s KHL career has largely mirrored his NHL one. He made a strong first impression with SKA St. Petersburg, leading a stacked club in goals with 23 in 47 games. But things went downhill quickly as his production dipped to 10 goals and 20 points in 46 games in 2019-20. He hasn’t hit double-digit goals in a KHL season since.
After leaving SKA in 2020, Yakupov has suited up for Amur Khabarovsk, Avangard Omsk, and Neftekhimik Nizhnekamsk. He spent last season with Nizhnekamsk, his hometown club, recording 19 points (eight goals, 11 assists) in 31 games with 18 PIMs and a -3 rating.
The former CHL rookie of the year now heads to Kunlun, whose operations are based in Beijing but have played in Mytishchi, a suburb of Moscow, since the COVID-19 pandemic. Kunlun has missed the playoffs for seven of its eight years of existence but is loading up for 2024-25. Their roster now has over 1,000 combined games of NHL experience, with Yakupov joining American, Canadian and European imports like Rourke Chartier, Adam Clendening, and Tomas Jurco, among others.
Blues Offer Sheet Philip Broberg, Dylan Holloway
The Blues are tendering offer sheets to Oilers RFAs Philip Broberg and Dylan Holloway, the team announced (via Matthew DeFranks of The St. Louis Post-Dispatch). In a separate transaction, they’ve reacquired their own 2025 second-round pick from the Penguins to have the appropriate compensation should Edmonton not match one or both of the offer sheets.
St. Louis’ offer sheet for Broberg is a two-year, $9.16MM deal, while Holloway’s is a two-year, $4.58MM deal, per DeFranks. The deals carry AAVs of $4.58MM and $2.29MM, respectively.
Both are at the maximum of their respective categories in the offer sheet compensation thresholds, which the league updated this offseason. Should Edmonton fail to match, the Blues would owe the Oilers their 2025 third-round pick for Holloway and the aforementioned 2025 second-round pick for Broberg.
The preceding pick swap with the Penguins saw the Blues acquire Pittsburgh’s 2026 fifth-round pick and next year’s second-rounder, sending their 2026 second-round pick and the Senators’ 2025 third-round pick in return. St. Louis had sent its 2025 second-rounder to the Penguins in June to get Kevin Hayes‘ $3.57MM cap hit off the books, while they acquired Ottawa’s pick as compensation for taking on the final two seasons of Mathieu Joseph‘s contract at a $2.95MM cap hit.
New Oilers general manager Stan Bowman now has seven days to decide whether to match the offer sheets or accept the draft-pick compensation. But given Edmonton’s financial situation, matching the bloated short-term deals will be a tough ask.
The second year attached to both deals may be the deciding factor. Not only are the Oilers already over the salary cap today, paying out nearly $7MM in cap hits in 2025-26 for Broberg and Holloway would significantly inhibit their ability to sign pending UFA Leon Draisaitl to what will likely be the richest deal in franchise history.
But if the Oilers decide to match one or both the offer sheets, they wouldn’t need to make any corresponding transactions immediately. Edmonton is only roughly $350K over the $88MM salary cap, per PuckPedia, and teams can exceed that upper limit by up to 10% during the offseason. That’s enough wiggle room to add $6.87MM worth of Broberg and Holloway to the books, but they would need to shed more salary than previously anticipated to become cap-compliant by the time opening-night rosters are due.
Edmonton’s short-term crunch could be helped out by Evander Kane, who’s expected to need surgery and will likely start the season on long-term injured reserve. But if Kane and his $5.125MM cap hit aren’t expected to miss the entire season, they’ll still need space to activate him at some point.
On St. Louis’ end, it’s now clear why GM Doug Armstrong was intent on keeping his options open financially this summer, shedding some bad deals for slightly more cost-effective ones. The Blues have $7.34MM in projected cap space, per PuckPedia, ninth-most in the league. It’s enough to take on the AAVs for Broberg and Holloway without any corresponding moves, and they could end up with even more flexibility should defenseman Torey Krug require surgery to address pre-arthritic conditions in his left ankle. That would cost him the entire 2024-25 season and make him eligible for LTIR, allowing them to use his $6.5MM cap hit for relief.
Failing to match either would be a tough proposition for the Oilers, who selected Broberg eighth overall in 2019 and Holloway at 14th overall in 2020. Both are on their way to becoming everyday NHL contributors, with Holloway appearing in all 25 playoff games for Edmonton and Broberg pushing for more NHL minutes after excelling with the Oilers’ AHL affiliate, the Bakersfield Condors, last season.