New York Rangers Sign Jonathan Quick To Extension
Mar. 4: Quick’s deal includes an additional $25K performance bonus, per CapFriendly. He’ll earn the bonus if he makes at least 20 starts in 2024-25 and ends the season with a save percentage of .915 or above.
Mar. 3: The New York Rangers announced they have signed goaltender Jonathan Quick to a one-year contract extension. Signing a one-year deal with his hometown team this past offseason, Quick became eligible to sign an extension with the Rangers on January 1st of this year. Arthur Staple of The Athletic is reporting that New York will give Quick a slight increase on his current $825K salary, now paying the goaltender $1.275MM for the 2024-25 NHL season. CapFriendly adds that Quick will receive a $775K base salary with a $500K signing bonus along with a 20-team no-trade clause.
Spending 15 and a half seasons with the Los Angeles Kings organization, Quick went on to become one of the top United States-born goaltenders in league history. Aside from Stanley Cup championships in 2012 and 2014, Quick would win two William M. Jennings Trophies, earn three top-five finishes in Vezina Trophy voting, and one Conn Smythe Trophy.
In the last season of a 10-year, $58MM contract extension signed with the Kings on July 1st, 2012, Quick was soon made expendable by the only franchise he had ever known. Amid a poor season, Los Angeles sent Quick to the Columbus Blue Jackets as a part of a deal that brought Joonas Korpisalo and Vladislav Gavrikov to California.
Without having much to compete for last season, the Blue Jackets were adamant about sending Quick to a playoff contender. Before even having the opportunity to suit up for Columbus, the organization sent Quick to the Vegas Golden Knights only one day later.
Quick performed mildly better for the Golden Knights, producing a 5-2-2 record in 10 games down the stretch, earning a .901 SV% and a 3.13 GAA. Even without having played a game for the team throughout the 2023 Stanley Cup playoffs, Quick had his name engraved on the Stanley Cup for a third time after Vegas hoisted the trophy for the first time in franchise history.
Becoming an unrestricted free agent for the first time in his career, the Milford, Connecticut native quickly signed with the Rangers on the first day of free agency. Carrying low expectations after a disappointing season last year, Quick has rebounded exceptionally well in the Big Apple.
Serving in the backup role behind Igor Shesterkin, Quick has arguably been the Rangers’ best goaltender this season. In 21 games played, Quick has accrued a 13-5-2 record, maintaining a .916 SV% and 2.45 GAA in the process.
With no serious contenders for the backup role making their way up the organizational depth chart, the strong play of Quick throughout this season led to today’s contract extension. Not only will Quick continue to play for his favorite team growing up, but earned himself a raise to boot.
Kevin Weekes of ESPN was the first to report that Quick had signed an extension in New York.
Vancouver Canucks Recall Vasily Podkolzin, Matt Irwin
The Vancouver Canucks have recalled forward Vasily Podkolzin and defenseman Matt Irwin from their AHL affiliate, the Abbotsford Canucks, per a team announcement. The news comes shortly after the team reassigned Arshdeep Bains down to the AHL, and announced that Tyler Myers would be out week-to-week with an undisclosed injury.
Neither Podkolzin nor Irwin have suited up for a game in Vancouver yet this year, with both having only played in Abbotsford. In now his third season with the Canucks organization since being drafted by the team with the 10th overall pick of the 2019 NHL Draft, Podkolzin has yet to make any serious headway in climbing the ladder of the organizational depth chart.
This season, Podkolzin has played in 44 games for Abbotsford, scoring 15 goals and 28 points throughout the year. In his complete tenure in the Canucks organization at the AHL level, Podkolzin has played in a total of 72 games, scoring 22 goals and 46 points overall.
Irwin, on the other hand, is in his first year with the Canucks organization, coming over as an unrestricted free agent from a two-year stint with the Washington Capitals. Primarily used as a bottom-pairing defenseman throughout much of his career, Irwin has scored three goals and 10 points through 46 games in Abbotsford this season.
It is unlikely that either player will get much playing time at the NHL level, but there is an avenue for both of them. If Vancouver is looking to give any top-nine players a rest, Podkolzin could certainly fill that role for a short period. With Myers also out, the team will now have Irwin and Mark Friedman to choose from to fill in the void.
Maple Leafs Assign Nicholas Robertson To AHL
With the Maple Leafs needing to make a move to open up a roster spot and free up the cap space to officially activate Calle Jarnkrok off LTIR, they’ve elected to send Nicholas Robertson down, announcing (Twitter link) that they’ve assigned the winger to AHL Toronto.
The 22-year-old started the season in the minors with the Maple Leafs taking advantage of his waiver exemption. He fared quite well early on with the Marlies, picking up five goals and six assists in nine games with them, resulting in a recall back to the big club back in early November; he had been with the Leafs since then until now.
Robertson has played in 41 games at the NHL level so far this season, a career-high. He has put up reasonable offensive numbers with eight goals and 11 assists in those appearances while averaging a little over 11 minutes a night almost exclusively at five-on-five. He had been playing regularly as of late but once again, his waiver exemption likely worked against him.
Once the trade deadline passes, there are no more limits on roster sizes so depending on what Toronto’s salary cap situation looks like by then, it’s quite possible that Robertson is back with the Maple Leafs by this time a week from now if he is still with the organization at that point. If not, he’ll have an opportunity to play much bigger minutes with the Marlies which could help him heading into restricted free agency this summer.
Metropolitan Notes: Hurricanes, Guentzel, Dowd, Newkirk
It wasn’t that long ago that the Hurricanes were looking to add to their goaltending. Now, GM Don Waddell might be taking a different approach as he told Chip Alexander of the Raleigh News & Observer that there’s a possibility that they wind up moving one of their four netminders. Frederik Andersen (blood clots) could be back sometime this coming week while Pyotr Kochetkov, Antti Raanta (currently on IR), and Spencer Martin are also in the mix, potentially creating a four-goalie rotation at some point. While extra depth is nice to have, that might be a bit much for the stretch run, even without their own AHL affiliate to draw from.
More from the Metropolitan:
- Penguins winger Jake Guentzel took part in today’s morning skate in a non-contact jersey, notes Matt Vensel of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (Twitter link). The 29-year-old has been his usual point-per-game self this season with 52 in 50 games but he may have played his last game in Pittsburgh. Guentzel is currently on LTIR with an upper-body injury and isn’t eligible to return until March 10th, two days after the trade deadline. The fact he took part in the skate today is a promising sign that he’ll be able to return as planned on the 10th or soon after.
- Capitals center Nic Dowd skated today in a non-contact jersey as he works his way back from an upper-body injury, relays NHL.com’s Tom Gulitti (Twitter link). The 33-year-old was injured a little less than two weeks ago and while he won’t play tomorrow against Arizona, he could return sometime next week. Dowd has eight goals and eight assists in 45 games so far this season while ranking second on the team in faceoffs taken.
- The Islanders have re-assigned forward Reece Newkirk from AHL Bridgeport to ECHL Worcester, per the AHL’s transactions log. The 23-year-old was brought up last month but played only once, bringing his games played total in the AHL to 13 on the season where he has a goal and two assists. A pending restricted free agent this summer, Newkirk appears to be trending toward non-tender territory in June.
Devils Sign Mikael Diotte
The Devils have added to their prospect pool, announcing that they’ve signed defenseman Mikael Diotte to a three-year, entry-level contract that begins next season. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
The 20-year-old went undrafted but has taken some steps forward this season to get on the NHL radar. Diotte is in his fourth full QMJHL season, all spent with Drummondville where he has already set new career highs offensively with 10 goals and 27 assists through 50 games. Over his career with the Voltigeurs, the 6’3 rearguard has 20 goals and 65 assists in 197 major junior contests.
Diotte will spend the remainder of the season with Drummondville but will not be eligible to return for next year due to his age. Instead, he will begin his professional career, potentially with AHL Utica, a team that only has two other prospect blueliners under contract for the 2024-25 campaign as things currently stand.
Panthers Sign Sandis Vilmanis
March 1st was an important date on the NHL calendar as it was the first day that teams could sign players to contracts for next season. We saw several of those deals handed out yesterday and today, the Panthers joined in, announcing that they’ve signed winger Sandis Vilmanis to a three-year, entry-level contract beginning in the 2024-25 season. Financial terms of the deal were not released.
Vilmanis was a fifth-round pick by the Panthers back in 2022 (157th overall) and has shown steady improvement since then. He had a good rookie season with OHL Sarnia last season with 20 goals and 25 assists in 62 games and has already set new benchmarks for goals and points this year with 28 and 53, respectively. The 20-year-old was traded to North Bay just before the OHL trade deadline back in January.
Vilmanis has suited up for Latvia at multiple international tournaments. He has played at the last three World Juniors and picked up four points in five games at the most recent event. He also played in two World Under-18 events leading into his draft year. He won’t be expected to make the jump to the NHL next season but instead should play with their AHL affiliate in Charlotte.
Canucks Sign Elias Pettersson To Eight-Year Extension
There was a recent push on extension talks between the Canucks and center Elias Pettersson and it appears that push helped get a deal over the finish line. The team announced that they’ve inked Pettersson to an eight-year contract extension.
GM Patrik Allvin released the following statement on the signing:
This is a very important signing for the Vancouver Canucks. Elias is one of the top players in the National Hockey League and is a key member of our leadership group. We know his best days are ahead of him and with his high end skill and desire to be the best, we look forward to seeing Elias succeed and grow. This signing is another example of our ownerships’ unwavering commitment to do what ever it takes to help us be a successful organization.
Financial terms of the contract were not disclosed by the team but Daily Faceoff’s Frank Seravalli reports (Twitter link) that the deal is worth $92.8MM in total for an AAV of $11.6MM. Chris Johnston of TSN and The Athletic adds (Twitter link) that $47MM of the payout is in the form of signing bonuses while the contract carries a full no-move clause once he’s eligible for the 2025-26 season. CapFriendly has the full breakdown which is as follows:
2024-25: $2.5MM salary, $12MM signing bonus
2025-26: $4.5MM salary, $10MM signing bonus
2026-27: $11.0MM salary
2027-28: $9.45MM salary, $5MM signing bonus
2028-29: $7.25MM salary, $5MM signing bonus
2029-30: $3.7MM salary, $5MM signing bonus
2030-31: $3.7MM salary, $5MM signing bonus
2031-32: $3.7MM salary, $5MM signing bonus
Vancouver drafted the 25-year-old in the first round (fifth overall) back in 2017 and since then, he has gone from being a key core piece to a legitimate franchise player. Pettersson won the Calder Trophy in his rookie campaign in 2018-19 where he had 66 points and followed that up with 66 more the following season. However, an injury-riddled 2020-21 season ultimately resulted in the two sides settling on a three-year bridge deal, one that was set to expire this summer where he would have been a restricted free agent with salary arbitration eligibility and a year away from unrestricted free agency.
Pettersson made a big jump on the offensive side of things last season, setting new career highs across the board with 39 goals and 63 assists, finishing tenth in NHL scoring. That fuelled speculation that the two sides would work out a long-term agreement last summer and put any speculation to rest. However, Pettersson and his camp had repeatedly indicated that his preference was to wait until the offseason before making a determination on his next contract.
This season, Pettersson’s per-game averages are down just slightly as he’s on pace for 38 goals and 61 assists, numbers that are still upper-tier league-wide while he is an all-situations player. That had only helped spur on speculation about his willingness to sign long-term with the Canucks since he was still wanting to wait until the offseason to put pen to paper on his next contract. That speculation got to the point where Vancouver and Carolina reportedly entered into serious discussions about a potential trade before both Vancouver and Pettersson took a step back and opted to take a real run at hammering out a new deal, talks which clearly proved fruitful.
The contract is by far the richest in franchise history, an outcome that shouldn’t come as much surprise considering Pettersson’s recent performance and the high demand for top-end centers. The deal will make him the fifth-highest-paid player AAV-wise in the NHL next season behind only Auston Matthews, Nathan MacKinnon, Connor McDavid, and Artemi Panarin.
Vancouver now has a little over $60MM in spending on the books for next season per CapFriendly to just a dozen players with Filip Hronek headlining their crop of restricted free agents. Of note, only two full-time regular defensemen are under contract for 2024-25 so Allvin will need to allocate a lot of their remaining money to filling out the back end. Meanwhile, Pettersson is now one of just three Canucks under contract past the 2026-27 campaign, joining center J.T. Miller and blueliner Quinn Hughes.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Senators Recall Max Guenette And Leevi Merilainen
The Senators have made a pair of roster moves in advance of their game tonight against Philadelphia, announcing (Twitter link) that they’ve recalled defenseman Max Guenette and goaltender Leevi Merilainen from AHL Belleville.
Guenette’s recall is a bit of a surprise since the Sens had all six of their defensemen get through last night’s game without an issue so it appears Guenette is up for injury insurance purposes with Travis Hamonic listed as out week-to-week. The 22-year-old has made one appearance in Ottawa this season and has spent most of the season in Belleville where he has 29 points in 48 games.
As for Merilainen, it also might seem a bit surprising that a second goalie was recalled. Joonas Korpisalo was a late scratch on Friday due to illness, resulting in the Sens not dressing a backup goalie until Mads Sogaard arrived. But with Anton Forsberg being banged up last night and not traveling with the team, another netminder was needed. Merilainen has split the season between two minor leagues, putting up a .904 SV% in 16 AHL games and a .926 mark in 13 ECHL appearances.
With the two promotions, Ottawa’s roster is now at the maximum of 23 players. Meanwhile, cap space isn’t an issue for them in the short term following Friday’s placement of Josh Norris on LTIR so they can afford to carry a full-sized roster, a luxury they haven’t had for most of the season.
Stars Notes: Seguin, Stankoven, Tanev
While the Stars are currently without center Tyler Seguin and will be for the next several weeks, don’t expect Dallas to put him on LTIR and go on a bit of a spending spree. Pierre LeBrun of TSN and The Athletic reports (Twitter link) that the 32-year-old is expected to return from his lower-body injury before the end of the regular season. Accordingly, they’d have to be cap-compliant before activating him from LTIR so they couldn’t go and spend several million of his $9.85MM AAV at the trade deadline. That said, they could eventually place him on LTIR to bring up an extra player or two for depth purposes after the deadline with those players returning to the minors once Seguin is able to return. Dallas has $1.17MM in cap room, per CapFriendly, thanks to Evgenii Dadonov’s LTIR placement so their options to add will be limited in the coming days.
More from Dallas:
- Speaking of returning to the minors, that’s what Logan Stankoven did today as the team announced that they’ve sent the 20-year-old back to AHL Texas. The forward has been shuttled back and forth in recent days and likely will be recalled before their game on Saturday versus San Jose. Stankoven has been productive since making his NHL debut last month, recording three goals and one assist in his first four NHL appearances.
- One player who might not be playing against the Sharks tomorrow is defenseman Chris Tanev. The veteran was acquired earlier this week from Calgary as part of a three-team trade but team reporter Mike Heika relays (Twitter link) that the veteran is dealing with visa issues and may not be available to play in that one. In that case, he’d be lined up to make his debut on Tuesday on the back end of the home-and-home set with San Jose. Tanev has 14 points and 171 blocks in 56 games so far and is expected to play a big role for Dallas down the stretch.
Metropolitan Notes: Markström, Hurricanes, Capitals, Gruden
The Devils added some bottom-six grit today by acquiring enforcer Kurtis MacDermid from the Avalanche. Still, GM Tom Fitzgerald is far from done ahead of the March 8 trade deadline. He remains aggressive in his pursuit for a goaltender and, with Predators starter Juuse Saros all but off the table thanks to Nashville’s recent hot streak, he’s refocused his attention on the Flames and Jacob Markström.
Calgary seems less inclined to move on from their star starter than earlier in the calendar year, but that hasn’t stopped New Jersey from continuing to engage. Pierre LeBrun of TSN and The Athletic reports Friday that New Jersey has made it known they’re no longer asking the Flames to retain any salary on Markström in a potential deal, making a trade much more palatable for Calgary GM Craig Conroy, who’s made it clear in recent days he doesn’t want to be stuck with any more long-term salary commitments than necessary.
That still doesn’t likely solve all of New Jersey’s roadblocks in acquiring Markström, who carries a $6MM cap hit through 2026. The Flames’ unwillingness to take salary back means it’s highly unrealistic that they’d take Devils netminder Vítek Vaněček, who carries a $3.4MM cap hit through next season, back in a trade. That would pose significant cap issues for the Devils in 2024-25, as they have under $20MM in projected space with only 13 out of 23 roster spots filled. To make it work, they’d likely need to part with more assets to dump the last season of the struggling Vaněček’s deal in a separate trade.
Other notes out of the Metropolitan Division one week out from the deadline:
- The Hurricanes continue to pursue forward help as their top priority over the next seven days, The Fourth Period’s David Pagnotta reports. That includes smaller-scale additions outside of their reported interest in Canucks star center Elias Pettersson, which could very well flame out as extension talks between him and Vancouver continue. A quick scan of their forward group makes it clear they’d prefer to add a center above all else. 24-year-old Jack Drury is currently holding down the second line between Michael Bunting and Martin Nečas and, while he’s taken a step forward this season, still has only 26 points in 60 games – not at all the production you’d envision from the second-line center on a Stanley Cup-contending team.
- All three of the Capitals’ questionable players for tonight’s practically do-or-die game against the Flyers will be in the lineup, head coach Spencer Carbery said (via Tom Gulitti of NHL.com). Tom Wilson (personal leave), Nick Jensen (lower body), and Sonny Milano (illness) had all missed recent practices or games. Wilson returns to a top-line role alongside Alex Ovechkin while youngster Hendrix Lapierre gets a chance down the middle between them, while Milano, who’s struggled to stay healthy with 11 points in 27 games this year, occupies a second-line role alongside Max Pacioretty and Dylan Strome. Jensen returns to his normal role, anchoring the team’s second pairing behind John Carlson.
- The Penguins have recalled left-winger Jonathan Gruden for the second time in the past two days, per a team announcement. The 23-year-old was brought up under emergency conditions before yesterday’s loss to the Kraken but did not play, and was briefly returned to AHL Wilkes-Barre/Scranton over the night. He’s skated in five NHL games this year, going without a point while averaging 7:20 per game.