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Devils, Sharks Swap Shane Bowers, Thomas Bordeleau

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The Devils have acquired the signing rights to RFA forward Thomas Bordeleau from the Sharks in exchange for Shane Bowers, both clubs announced.

The trade marks a swap of underperforming prospects, although calling Bowers a prospect at this stage of his career is a big stretch. He turns 26 later this month and now joins his fifth NHL organization after being a first-round pick by the Senators in 2017 out of Boston University.

Bowers, a 6’2″ center, has seen NHL action in each of the last three seasons but is still looking for his first NHL point. Twelve of his 13 career appearances have come over the last two seasons with New Jersey, where he averaged 9:03 per game and went 8-for-23 on faceoffs (34.8%) with 12 hits.

The Nova Scotia native hasn’t displayed consistent upside in the minors, either. He had just three goals in 65 games with AHL Utica last season, adding 14 assists for 17 points with a -14 rating. He’s produced just 0.34 points per game over seven AHL seasons during stops in the Devils, Avalanche, and Bruins organizations.

While Bordeleau has a lower draft pedigree and has also failed to capture a full-time NHL role, he’s three years younger than Bowers and has displayed far more offensive competency at the NHL and AHL levels. That makes this a shrewd pickup for the Devils, and it’s fair to wonder if Bordeleau requested a trade out of San Jose amid a logjam of forward prospects in the Bay Area.

Either way, the 5’10” center gets a fresh start in Newark with a chance to make the opening night roster in October. The 23-year-old University of Michigan product posted six goals and 18 points in 44 NHL games with the Sharks in the last four years, and he logged a 14-24–38 scoring line in 59 games with the AHL’s San Jose Barracuda last year. He was an AHL All-Star in 2022-23 and was the Big 10’s Rookie of the Year with Michigan back in 2020-21.

New Jersey will need to get Bordeleau signed to a new contract, but once they do, he’ll look to compete for a roster spot alongside names like rookie Arseni Gritsyuk and depth signing Angus Crookshank. If he doesn’t crack the roster, he’d need to land on waivers to go to Utica.

Penguins Sign Rafael Harvey-Pinard To Two-Way Contract

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The Penguins have signed free agent winger Rafael Harvey-Pinard to a two-way contract, the team confirmed in a press release. They also officially finalized previously reported contracts for Anthony Mantha and Philip Kemp. Harvey-Pinard will earn $775K in the NHL and $450K in the AHL with a $525K guarantee, per PuckPedia.

Harvey-Pinard first popped up on the NHL radar as an overage selection out of QMJHL Rouyn-Noranda, going to the Canadiens in the seventh round of the 2019 draft. He turned pro with the Laval Rocket, Montreal’s AHL affiliate, in 2020-21 before making his NHL debut the following season on a four-game call-up.

After producing well in Laval to begin his pro career, Harvey-Pinard got an extended NHL look later in the 2022-23 campaign after Cole Caufield went down with a shoulder injury. He got reps in top-six duties alongside Nick Suzuki and produced quite well, scoring 14 goals and six assists for 20 points in 34 games.

Injuries have since derailed the 26-year-old’s career, and he never found that spark again. Last season, he wasn’t cleared to play until late November after sustaining a broken leg during the offseason and cleared waivers upon his return. In addition to only getting one NHL appearance in 2024-25, his minor-league production was also dreadful. After consistently producing around a 0.80 points per game clip earlier in his career with Laval, he had just five goals and 14 assists for 19 points in 40 games for them last year.

The 5’9″ winger will now try to jumpstart his production in the Penguins organization. It’s a no-risk signing for Pittsburgh, who might even have a spot on their opening night roster for Harvey-Pinard if he impresses in camp, if they shop forwards like Noel Acciari, Kevin Hayes, and Danton Heinen this summer as speculated. He likely wraps up Pittsburgh’s depth signings with 46 out of a possible 50 contracts now on the books for this season.

Image courtesy of Sergei Belski-Imagn Images.

Jets Sign Walker Duehr, Samuel Fagemo, Isaac Poulter To Two-Way Deals

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The Jets announced they’ve signed forwards Walker Duehr, Samuel Fagemo, and goaltender Isaac Poulter to two-way contracts with league-minimum cap hits. They also confirmed previously reported two-way deals for defenseman Kale Clague and winger Phillip Di Giuseppe.

All five players receive $775K cap hits on one-year deals. Clague, Duehr, and Poulter received $475K AHL salaries, Di Giuseppe received a $450K AHL salary, and Fagemo received a $375K AHL salary, per PuckPedia.

The signings of Duehr and Fagemo help Winnipeg replace some of the fringe NHL forward depth they lost when RFA Rasmus Kupari signed overseas. The latter, while being the cheapest, is a high-upside pickup.

Fagemo, 25, was a Group VI UFA after spending all of 2024-25 in the minors with the Kings. He scored 29 goals in 67 games for the Ontario Reign to give him 132 in 268 AHL contests, the most in the league since he turned pro six years ago. For whatever reason, the 2019 second-round pick by L.A. just hasn’t managed to convert that elite minor-league offense into consistent NHL minutes. He only has 21 career games at the top level with Los Angeles and Nashville, posting three goals and an assist while averaging just 9:29 of ice time per game.

He may get an NHL job on a team that appears set to lose a pair of wingers in Nikolaj Ehlers and Mason Appleton to free agency as well, although neither has signed a new deal as of yet. The forwards they’ve added thus far in free agency include Cole Koepke, Tanner Pearson, and Jonathan Toews.

Duehr, 27, split last season between the Flames and Sharks after being claimed off waivers. The South Dakota native has topped out as a fine fourth-line piece, totaling 11 goals and 10 assists for 21 points with a -14 rating in 92 games for Calgary and San Jose over the past three seasons. He’ll look to compete for a depth spot on Winnipeg’s NHL roster after spending more time than he’d like to in the AHL last year, scoring 28 points in 36 minor-league games with the Flames’ and Sharks’ affiliates.

Poulter will presumably be the third-string goalie on Winnipeg’s depth chart behind Connor Hellebuyck and Eric Comrie, replacing Chris Driedger, who signed in Russia. The netminder turns 24 in September and spent his first three professional seasons in the Devils organization, ultimately going non-tendered on Monday to become a UFA. He made 36 appearances for AHL Utica last season, recording a 2.86 GAA, .898 SV%, one shutout, and a 16-13-7 record.

Blues Waive Nick Leddy

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The Blues have placed defenseman Nick Leddy on standard waivers, per Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman.

Leddy, 34, cannot be bought out since the first window has closed. Since he’s on standard, not unconditional waivers, this move isn’t made with a contract termination in mind, either. Instead, the Blues are seeing if there are any takers for the final season of his contract, which carries a $4MM cap hit but only $3MM in actual salary, per PuckPedia.

St. Louis had been working in conjunction with Leddy to find a trade partner to give him more ice time this season, but no offers materialized, Frank Seravalli reports. Any of the league’s 31 other teams can now have him for free by submitting a claim in the next 24 hours, including the 16 teams on his no-trade list.

Leddy signed a four-year, $16MM extension with St. Louis in 2022 that had largely provided fair value until last year. The 13-year veteran missed over half the season with a lower-body injury and only had five points and a plus-six rating in 31 games when healthy, averaging 18:40 of ice time per game. He’d averaged at least 20 minutes per game for the previous 10 seasons.

It remains to be seen what happens in the event Leddy clears waivers. If the Blues have made up their minds that he won’t be on their roster next season, he could either accept an AHL assignment and take home his $3MM guaranteed salary for next season or request a mutual termination, forfeiting his money but allowing himself to pursue an NHL opportunity elsewhere in free agency.

One of the league’s consistent top-four fixtures throughout the 2010s and early 2020s, Leddy has 75 goals, 341 assists, and 416 points with a -36 rating in 1,042 career games with the Blues, Blackhawks, Islanders, and Red Wings. Before his injury-plagued 2024-25 campaign, Leddy had posted 59 points and a +21 rating in 180 games with St. Louis, who initially acquired him from Detroit at the 2022 trade deadline.

The Blues have been open to parting ways with veteran defensemen to make way for a youth movement. They opted not to re-sign Ryan Suter and will now look to offload Leddy to both free up cap space for future trade discussions this summer while also giving more opportunity for players like fresh trade pickup Logan Mailloux, Matthew Kessel, and Tyler Tucker to play more consistent NHL roles.

Image courtesy of Walter Tychnowicz-Imagn Images.

Penguins Sign Philip Kemp To Two-Way Contract

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Group VI free agent defenseman Philip Kemp has signed a two-way contract with the Penguins, according to the league’s media site (via Seth Rorabaugh of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review). PuckPedia reports it’s a two-year commitment with an NHL salary of $775K and a $350K AHL salary in both seasons. He has a $375K guarantee in 2025-26 and a $400K guarantee in 2026-27.

Kemp, a Yale product, was a seventh-round pick by the Oilers in the 2017 draft and has been in the Edmonton organization since then, primarily with AHL Bakersfield. He’s played five seasons for the Condors, the last two as an alternate captain.

The 26-year-old righty only has one NHL game to his name, recording just three shifts for 2:03 of ice time in an overtime win over the Canadiens in January 2024. Checking in at 6’3″ and 202 lbs, he scored seven goals, five assists, and 12 points with 39 PIMs and a plus-five rating in 56 games for Bakersfield last season. He has 18 goals, 40 assists, and 58 points with a +38 rating in 258 career games with Bakersfield.

Kemp likely won’t be in consideration for a roster spot in Pittsburgh, even with their lack of NHL-quality defensemen. He doesn’t offer much future upside and isn’t the type of player they’re targeting for NHL minutes as they continue to retool/rebuild their roster. He will, however, likely have more call-up opportunities in Pittsburgh if injuries strike, given their lack of organizational depth.

Pittsburgh only has five contract slots remaining for 2025-26 after signing Kemp.

Wild Sign Bradley Marek To Entry-Level Contract

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The Wild have signed undrafted free agent Bradley Marek to a one-year, entry-level contract, the team announced today in a press release.

Marek, 24, isn’t new to the organization. He spent last year with their AHL affiliate in Iowa on a minor-league contract. It was his second professional season after spending 2023-24 on an AHL deal with San Jose, also seeing time with the Sharks’ ECHL affiliate in Wichita.

Marek, a 6’3″, 212-lb left-winger, scored eight goals and five assists for 13 points in 50 games with 67 PIMs for Iowa in 2024-25. He also wasn’t a needle-mover offensively at the AHL level with San Jose the year before, but was strong in his time in the ECHL, scoring 13 goals and 31 points in 37 games for the Thunder.

Terms of Marek’s deal weren’t disclosed by the Wild, but he’ll be a restricted free agent next summer when the deal expires. He’s also the 38th contract on Minnesota’s books for 2025-26, giving them 12 open spots.

The Michigan native won’t be in contention for an NHL roster spot but will at least look to take a step forward offensively in 2025-26 and land a richer two-way deal from the Wild next summer. In college, Marek was the CCHA’s Rookie of the Year with Ferris State after scoring 10 goals and 19 points in 36 games for them in 2021-22.

He’s the fourth signing Minnesota has made since free agency opened. They brought back Nico Sturm on a two-year, $4MM contract and also handed out two-way deals to depth skaters Ben Gleason and Tyler Pitlick.

Kings Re-Sign Taylor Ward

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The Kings are using Day 2 of free agency to round out their depth after being one of the bigger spenders on Day 1, signing forward Taylor Ward to a one-year, two-way deal, PuckPedia reports.

Ward, 27, was an unrestricted free agent for less than 24 hours. The undrafted pickup by the Kings back in 2022 now signs his fourth consecutive one-year deal with the club, this one carrying a $775K NHL salary and $300K AHL salary, per PuckPedia. That’s nearly double the $165K AHL salary he earned on last year’s two-way deal.

While Ward again spent the vast majority of the season with AHL Ontario, he was called up for his NHL debut in the Kings’ final game of the season. He scored L.A.’s lone goal in a 5-1 loss to the Flames, recording four shots and three hits in 14:52 of ice time.

Down with Ontario, the University of Nebraska-Omaha product had 12 goals, 15 assists, and 27 points in 66 games with a plus-six rating. He has a 35-60–95 scoring line in 224 AHL games over the last four seasons.

Ward had to clear waivers to head to Ontario at the beginning of last season and likely won’t have a problem doing so again this fall. L.A. has now filled 44 of its 50 contract slots for this season.

Lightning Sign Jakob Pelletier To Three-Year Contract

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8:48 a.m.: The signing is official, according to a press release from the Lightning.

7:35 a.m.: The Lightning have signed winger Jakob Pelletier to a three-year contract, Renaud Lavoie of TVA reported overnight. It’s a two-way deal in 2025-26, followed by a one-way structure in 2026-27 and 2027-28. He’ll earn a base salary of $775K, $850K, and $900K in each respective season for a total value of $2.525MM and a cap hit of $841,667.

Pelletier, a first-round pick of the Flames in 2019, started last season in the AHL after clearing waivers. He received his first recall of the season in early December and remained on the NHL roster for the next two months aside from a few paper transactions, making 24 appearances to tie his previous career-high with the Flames in 2022-23.

In that span, it looked like the Quebec City native was finally getting his feet under him after an injury-riddled development path. While he wasn’t commanding top-six ice time, he did still notch four goals, seven assists, 11 points, and a +10 rating for Calgary – a 38-point pace over a full season. Nonetheless, they traded him to the Flyers in late January in the deal that brought Joel Farabee and Morgan Frost to the Flames.

The trade halted Pelletier’s offensive momentum. The feisty 5’9″ lefty only managed three goals, five assists, and eight points in 25 appearances for Philadelphia to end the season and was an occasional healthy scratch. He totaled seven goals, 12 assists, and 19 points in 47 games on the year while averaging 11:33 per game. He was owed a qualifying offer of $840K on a two-way deal that the Flyers decided they didn’t want to give him, cutting him loose on Monday and making him an unrestricted free agent.

The 24-year-old has an 11-18–29 scoring line with a plus-three rating in 86 NHL appearances for the Flames and Flyers over the last three seasons. He also had three goals, 16 assists, and 19 points in 20 games for AHL Calgary last year. The Lightning giving him three years of term acts as an effective deterrent to waiver claims, though, so they’d have that option to try to send him to AHL Syracuse without a ton of risk. Considering they already have 12 forwards on one-way deals for this year, plus top prospect Conor Geekie looking for more NHL ice time, he faces an uphill battle for a roster spot.

Senators To Sign Arthur Kaliyev

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Free agent winger Arthur Kaliyev is landing with the Senators, Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reports. Contract terms have yet to be revealed.

Kaliyev spent time with the Kings and Rangers last season but didn’t receive a qualifying offer from New York on Monday, making him an unrestricted free agent. He only appeared in game action for the Rangers after being claimed off waivers in January following a clavicle fracture, limited to three goals and one assist in 14 games while averaging 11:13 of ice time.

It’s fair to say the Blueshirts didn’t get a fair look at Kaliyev, who also spent the last month of the season on injured reserve with an upper-body issue. The 2019 second-round pick is a skilled shooter and was previously an effective depth scorer for L.A. in bottom six minutes, although his individual defensive weaknesses resulted in long stretches in the press box. Over his 202-game NHL career, Kaliyev averages 15 goals and 30 points per 82 games despite seeing just north of 12 minutes per game of ice time.

That makes him an intriguing buy-low candidate for the Senators, who didn’t do much to augment their forward group yesterday outside of a one-year deal for veteran bottom-six center Lars Eller. They hope he can have a similar impact to Adam Gaudette, who broke out for 19 goals last season in a fourth-line role on a league-minimum deal. He departed for the warmer waters of San Jose on a two-year, $4MM deal yesterday.

East Notes: Primeau, Lettieri, Leonard

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Hurricanes RFA goaltender Cayden Primeau signed a one-year, league minimum deal yesterday, according to a team release.

Primeau saw his signing rights transferred from Montreal to Carolina on Monday in exchange for a 2026 seventh-round pick. The 25-year-old bounced between the NHL and AHL for his first four professional seasons coming out of Northeastern University, but won a full-time roster spot with the Habs in 2023-24, in part due to their unwillingness to expose him to waivers.

He looked good in a three-goalie rotation with Sam Montembeault and Jake Allen that year but struggled mightily as Montembeault’s full-time No. 2 to begin last season. He posted an .836 SV% and sky-high 4.70 GAA with a 2-3-1 record in seven starts and four relief appearances before being waived in December, clearing and heading to AHL Laval.

Primeau got things back on track with a .926 SV% and 2.00 GAA in 25 games with Laval. The Canes hope he can carry that momentum into 2025-26 as he serves as the No. 3 behind the returning NHL tandem of Frederik Andersen and Pyotr Kochetkov, assuming he clears waivers again in the fall.

Here are a couple of other league minimum signings from yesterday:

  • The Maple Leafs brought in veteran depth center Vinni Lettieri, per PuckPedia. While a one-way deal, that’s presumably to guarantee him more compensation. They’re hoping he clears waivers and can be an impact player for AHL Toronto after they lost some important pieces like Nicholas Abruzzese and Alex Steeves yesterday. The 30-year-old spent last year with the Bruins organization, recording five points in 26 NHL games and 48 points in 46 AHL games.
  • The Red Wings announced a one-year, one-way league minimum deal for winger John Leonard yesterday. He joins their July 1 haul that also included James van Riemsdyk, Jacob Bernard-Docker, and Ian Mitchell. It’s the 26-year-old’s first NHL contract in a year – he spent last season on an AHL deal with Charlotte, leading the Calder Cup runner-ups in scoring with 36 goals, 25 assists, and 61 points in 72 games.

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