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Arbitration Schedule For Remaining Cases Finalized

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The arbitration hearing dates for the few remaining unsettled cases have been finalized, PuckPedia reports:

F Kaapo Kakko, Kraken: July 25

G Arvid Soderblom, Blackhawks: July 28

F Maxim Tsyplakov, Islanders: July 29

D Dylan Samberg, Jets: July 30

D Conor Timmins, Sabres: Aug. 2

F Nicholas Robertson, Maple Leafs: Aug. 3

D Jayden Struble, Canadiens: Aug. 3

There are only seven out of this year’s initial 11 player-elected arbitration cases still without a resolution as the hearings approach. Winnipeg had three of the players on that list and has settled with two of them, reaching a two-year, $3.7MM settlement with Morgan Barron and a substantial six-year, $45MM deal for Gabriel Vilardi.

The Ducks also had two arbitration cases on that list, but settled with both of them in the past few days. Depth defenseman Drew Helleson got a two-year, $2.2MM contract, while emerging star goaltender Lukas Dostal signed a five-year, $32.5MM deal.

There were two team-elected arbitration cases this year, the Sabres’ Bowen Byram and the Mammoth’s Jack McBain, but both have been settled.

As for the seven players above, they can continue talks with their clubs on a new deal until the hearing begins. After that, they’re bound to the arbitrator’s decision.

Players who reach an arbitration hearing are only eligible to sign a one or two-year contract. Since the player filed for arbitration in all seven cases above, the team gets to choose the contract length after receiving the arbitrator’s decision on the AAV. However, only Robertson, Soderblom, and Struble would be eligible for two-year contracts. Everyone else is one year away from being eligible for unrestricted free agency status, so they can’t receive a multi-year arbitration award.

If the arbitration award exceeds $4.85MM in any case, the team can decline it and allow the player to become an unrestricted free agent.

Blake Wheeler Reaffirms Retirement

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July 19, 2025: Wheeler again ruled out a comeback bid when speaking with Cam Poitras and Jim Toth on 680 CJOB’s Jets at Noon program earlier this week. “I just haven’t felt like a rush to like make a formal announcement or anything,” Wheeler said. “But yeah, after my injury and kinda the way things ended last year, I just didn’t have anything left in the tank for it. So yeah, I was at peace with it almost immediately after last year and yeah, I’m just enjoying being a dad and kinda slowing things down a little bit, and being around my family.”

Dec. 19, 2024: Winger Blake Wheeler has all but officially decided on retirement, as Paul Friesen of The Winnipeg Sun relays. Neither Wheeler nor the NHL Players’ Association has released a statement. Still, the former Jets captain told Dan Leffelaar of the Beyond High Performance podcast earlier this week that “there’s only so much gas in the tank” emotionally for an 82-game regular season.

In July, Wheeler, 38, hit unrestricted free agency after completing a one-year, $1.1MM contract with the Rangers. He joined the Blueshirts for the final season of his NHL career after having the captaincy stripped from him in Winnipeg in 2022 and seeing the final season of his five-year, $41.25MM contract with an $8.25MM cap hit bought out a year later. There wasn’t much buzz around his services on the UFA market aside from a report in August from Shawn Hutcheon of The Fourth Period that the Bruins were considering extending him a professional tryout. One way or another that never came to fruition, and Wheeler didn’t appear with any club during training camp.

A serious leg injury sustained in February ended his final regular season prematurely. However, he did return to the active roster near the end of New York’s second-round playoff win over the Hurricanes. He was a frequent healthy scratch upon returning to the lineup, though, with a lone postseason appearance against the Panthers in Game 4 of the Eastern Conference Final likely standing as his final NHL appearance. In 54 regular-season appearances with the Rangers, he posted nine goals and 12 assists for 21 points with a +2 rating while averaging a career-low 12:43 per game.

Wheeler was a highly touted prospect. In the 2004 draft, the Coyotes selected him fifth overall, immediately after eventual longtime teammate Andrew Ladd was taken off the board by the Hurricanes. However, he opted not to sign in Phoenix. He took the long route through college at the University of Minnesota before becoming a free agent in 2008 and signing with the Bruins. 

The right-winger’s debut season was solid, posting 21 goals and 45 points with a +36 rating in 81 games as Boston won 53 games and finished atop the Eastern Conference. He was one of many future under-25 impact players on that Bruins squad, featuring Patrice Bergeron, Milan Lucic, Phil Kessel and David Krejčí in the infancies of their careers. However, after his goal-scoring dropped off slightly in his second and third years in the league, Boston traded him to the Thrashers before the 2011 deadline for Rich Peverley.

Wheeler racked up 17 points in 23 games down the stretch for Atlanta, giving Thrashers fans a bittersweet taste of things to come for his production before the team packed up and moved to Winnipeg in the offseason. Now entirely in the prime of his career at age 25, Wheeler kicked off a dominant nine-year stretch in Winnipeg that saw him record 569 points in 616 games, ranking eighth in the NHL scoring between the 2011-12 and 2018-19 campaigns. His 384 assists during that time were fourth, trailing only Nicklas Bäckström, Sidney Crosby and Claude Giroux. He received All-Star consideration eight years in a row and finished as high as eighth in Hart Trophy voting in 2017-18 when he led the league with 68 assists in 81 outings.

After a 20-goal, 91-point showing in 2018-19, 2019-20 spelled out the beginning of Wheeler’s decline. He still managed a respectable 65 points in 71 games that year before the COVID-19 pandemic hit. However, that was accompanied by an artificially high 12.2% shooting rate and a significant drop-off in his assist totals. He kept up reasonable offensive production in his final three seasons in Winnipeg, logging 161 points in 187 games. But the Minnesota native became a defensive liability as he aged and became a significant drag on the Jets’ possession quality control at even strength. Combined with just three playoff series wins during his time in Winnipeg, including a run to the 2018 Western Conference Final in which he had 21 points in 17 games, the Jets parted ways with their captain and bought him out.

While the end of Wheeler’s career may have been marred by declining all-around play and injuries, the former All-Star was a high-end top-line talent throughout the 2010s. The 6’5 “, 225-lb right-winger puts a bow on his career with 321 goals and 622 assists for 943 points in 1,172 regular-season games. He logged a +67 rating, posted 764 PIMs, and racked up nearly 3,000 career shots on goal, averaging 18:11 per game. He pairs that strong regular-season production with 10 goals and 45 points in 66 career postseason games. Pro Hockey Rumors congratulates Wheeler on a phenomenal career.

Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.

Jets Sign Parker Ford To Two-Year Contract

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The Winnipeg Jets have signed forward Parker Ford to a two-year, two-way, $1.625MM contract. The deal will carry an $812.5K salary at the NHL level. Ford entered restricted free agency this summer after spending the last three seasons on an entry-level contract.

Ford went undrafted through his years of eligibility in 2019, 2020, and 2021. Those years spanned his final year in the USHL and first two seasons at Providence College. He didn’t catch NHL attention until his upperclass seasons with the Friars, where he became known for his endless motor and strong play in the dirty areas of the ice. He looked like a true coach’s favorite, made impacts in all three zones, and worked his way to 53 points in 75 games over his junior and senior seasons.

Those marks were enough to earn Ford a three-year, entry-level contract at the end of the 2022-23 season. He joined the AHL’s Manitoba Moose for their final eight games of the regular season, and jumped to scoring with four points, only to go without any points in five postseason games. Ford found better balance in the lineup as an AHL rookie last season. He finished the year with 18 goals and 41 points in 72 games, good for sixth on the Moose in scoring. That carved him out a hardy role in Manitoba’s top-six this season – a role Ford vindicated with 14 goals and 21 points in 41 games. He also earned his NHL debut this season, and scored one goal in three games with the Jets lineup.

A two-year deal will reward Ford’s carved out role in the AHL. He’ll likely head straight back to Manitoba’s top-six next season, but could find his way into a fourth-line, NHL role after fellow Jets depth forward Mason Appleton signed with the Detroit Red Wings this summer. Ford is a hard-working, well-rounded winger who is still largely undefined at the top flight, with only a few games in his NHL career and 121 games in his AHL career.

Jets Sign Gabriel Vilardi To Six-Year Contract

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The Winnipeg Jets have signed forward Gabriel Vilardi to a six-year, $45MM contract extension. The deal was first reported by Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman. It will carry an annual cap hit of $7.5MM. As Friedman points out, Vilardi will avoid salary arbitration with the Jets with this contract. He had filed for arbitration earlier in the summer, after entering restricted-free agency with a $3.6MM qualifying offer a the start of the off-season.

PuckPedia reports that the deal carries a $3.5MM salary and a $3.5MM signing bonus for next season with a straight $7.6MM salary in each of the remaining five years.  There is no trade protection in the contract.

Winnipeg will check a big box off of their summer list with this move. Vilardi was Winnipeg’s second-highest scoring free agent this year. The other, Nikolaj Ehlers, signed a six-year deal with the Carolina Hurricanes on July 3rd. Winnipeg had more control over RFA Vilardi, who will commit to a long-term deal with the club after spending the last two seasons on a short-term, prove-it contract.

The Jets acquired Vilardi’s negotiating rights alongside Alex Iafallo, Rasmus Kupari, and a 2024 second-round pick in the trade that sent Pierre-Luc Dubois to the Los Angeles Kings in the summer of 2023. It put the Jets in the awkward position of rewarding Vilardi for scoring 23 goals and 41 points in 63 games of Los Angeles’ 2022-23 season, after scoring 37 points in 69 career games in the prior three seasons. Winnipeg landed on a two-year, $6.88MM bridge contract.

With a new deal in place, the Jets honed in on adjusting Vilardi to the top-six, winger role that he began to take on in his latter years with the Kings, after entering the NHL as a center. Vilardi took on the role well, and scored 22 goals and 36 points in his first 47 games with the Jets. Unfortunately, those performances were spread around numerous injuries that forced Vilardi out of much of October, November, and March during the 2023-24 season.

An injury-shortened season to kick off a bridge contract swelled the pressure around Vilardi’s 2024-25 season. He entered the year not only playing for a contract, but looking to vindicate multiple seasons of promising scoring cut short by injuries. Vilardi jumped at the opportunity right out of the gates, scoring eight points in 10 games of October and 14 points in 14 games of November. His scoring carried through the extent of the season, and he finished the year with career-highs across the board – including 27 goals and 61 points in 61 games. He added four more points in nine playoff games.

Vilardi will be rewarded for a hot year with a contract in line with many high-scoring wingers entering their prime. The Utah Mammoth recently signed 23-year-old winger JJ Peterka to a five-year, $38.5MM contract; and the Toronto Maple Leafs signed 22-year-old Matthew Knies to a six-year, $46.5MM deal. Vilardi is older than both Peterka and Knies, but earns a richer annual salary than an older peer like Brock Boeser, who just inked a seven-year, $50.75MM contract in Vancouver.

A new, long-term deal will commit Vilardi to a major role in Winnipeg. Ehlers leaves behind a hardy, second-line role and routine power-play presence. Some of those minutes will be eaten up by summer signing Gustav Nyquist, and potentially prospects like Brad Lambert, but Vilardi could still see a boost from the 18 minutes of ice time he averaged this season. He has totaled 138 points in 181 games over the last three seasons — an 82-game pace of 33 goals and 63 points. With that scoring pace, and good health, on his side; Vilardi could be set to start his new deal with another breakout this season.

Photo courtesy of Terrence Lee-Imagn Images.

Did The Jets Do Enough This Summer?

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The Winnipeg Jets were a powerhouse last year in the regular season, winning the Presidents’ Trophy thanks to a historic season from goaltender Connor Hellebuyck, who secured his third Vezina Trophy as well as the Hart Trophy. Unfortunately, Hellebuyck and the Jets ran out of steam in the playoffs and were ousted in the second round.

The Dallas Stars unceremoniously knocked them out in just six games after Winnipeg narrowly escaped the first round against St. Louis, scoring in the final second of Game 7 before winning in overtime. The Jets weren’t expected to finish as high as they did last season, and after the summer they’ve had, they probably face lower expectations next year.

So, the question is: has Winnipeg done enough this summer to stay competitive in the Western Conference?

On the surface, teams that lose one of their top players to free agency generally don’t come away with a better group. That is precisely where the Jets find themselves after forward Nikolaj Ehlers took his talents to the Carolina Hurricanes, signing a six-year $51MM contract.

With Ehlers out of the picture after many months of speculation that he’d move on due to a lack of ice time, the Jets quickly took action to replace the loss. Winnipeg opted to replace Ehlers’ offense by committee rather than with an individual move, which was probably not a choice, but rather a necessity given their limited options.

Winnipeg decided to dive into the free agent market and managed to put together a few promising options to compensate for the loss of Ehlers’ offense. Their first move was to re-sign 37-year-old Jonathan Toews to the NHL after a two-year hiatus due to health issues.

The Winnipeg native hasn’t played since the 2022-23 season, and it’s uncertain what kind of contribution the three-time Stanley Cup champion can deliver. The last time Toews played, he scored 15 goals and added 16 assists in 53 games, ending with a -31 rating.

Since he was dealing with health problems then, it’s unfair to judge his past performance or predict similar results going forward. Still, he hasn’t played in the NHL for two seasons and is now 37 years old. Few players ever make a triumphant return in their mid to late 30s after a long absence, with Mario Lemieux being a notable exception.

It’s a gamble for the Jets to rely on Toews returning to his best, but if he does, he could replace a significant part of the offense Winnipeg lost when Ehlers went South. However, if he doesn’t, the Jets still have the option to pivot and use some of their substantial cap space to bring in extra help during the season. Winnipeg has nearly $20MM available under the cap with four players left to sign, so they should be able to leave room for mid-season acquisitions.

On July 1, the Jets also signed veteran forward Tanner Pearson to a one-year, $1MM contract. Pearson was a durable player early in his career, but injuries over the years have derailed his play, and he is now a shadow of his former self.

He was a decent playmaker at one point, but has become a liability on the possession front in recent seasons. That said, he comes to Winnipeg cheaply and should be able to produce around 25 points in a bottom-six role.

His impact on the Jets’ offense will be minimal, but given the low cost, Winnipeg could do much worse. It’s hard to believe, but Pearson is just 32 and posted 12 goals and 15 assists last season in 78 games, so there’s still some gas left in the tank for this season with the Jets.

The Jets also handed out a matching one-year, $1MM contract to forward Cole Koepke after he established himself as a regular NHL player last season. In Boston, the 27-year-old Minnesota native scored 10 goals and seven assists in 73 games while averaging just over 11 minutes per game. He will produce very little offense, but should provide the Jets with a player on their fourth line who can skate, get physical, and play a low-event, stable game.

Finally, the Jets signed the player who could provide the most offense in Ehlers’ absence, and that is 35-year-old Gustav Nyquist. The Halmstad, Sweden native played for Nashville and Minnesota last season and saw his offensive production drop sharply, falling from 75 points in 2023-24 to just 28 points last season.

His decline is quite puzzling, as his underlying numbers were decent, but everything that could go wrong for him did go wrong. He is still a good passer and could put up better numbers with Winnipeg if given the chance to play alongside some stronger players.

Nyquist will likely finish next season with over 28 points but is unlikely to repeat his 75-point performance. If he can raise his game and reach around 50 points, that would be a big win for Winnipeg, which is paying him just $3.25MM next season on a one-year deal.

Ultimately, the Jets made a series of low-risk, short-term signings in hopes of catching lightning in a bottle. These stopgaps will hold things together for the Jets as they aim to build on the success of this past season.

It’s hard to predict whether Toews, Nyquist, Pearson, and Koepke will be enough to replace the loss of Ehlers, but if they are, the Jets could be just as good as last season. If not, Winnipeg can always consider an in-season trade to boost its lineup.

Photo by Kamil Krzaczynski-USA TODAY Sports

Jets Offered Mangiapane More Than Oilers

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  • The Jets showed interest in winger Andrew Mangiapane in free agency, relays Ken Wiebe of the Winnipeg Free Press. The 29-year-old wound up signing a two-year, $7.2MM contract with Edmonton with a chance to play in their top six; Wiebe adds that Mangiapane left a bit of money on the table to do so, suggesting that Winnipeg’s offer was for a bit more than $3.6MM per season.  Mangiapane is coming off a quiet year that saw him record just 14 goals and 14 assists in 82 games with Washington, his third straight season of a decline in points after a career-best 35-goal, 55-point campaign with Calgary in 2021-22.

Jets Sign Tyrel Bauer To Two-Way Deal

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The Jets announced they’ve re-signed depth defenseman Tyrel Bauer to a two-way contract. The restricted free agent will earn a $775K NHL/$100K AHL/$125K guaranteed salary breakdown, Ken Wiebe of the Winnipeg Free Press reports.

Bauer, 23, will return to the Jets organization for his fourth professional season. The 6’3″, 207-lb righty has spent his entire career with the AHL’s Manitoba Moose since turning pro in 2022, serving as a No. 6/7 option there with a willingness to drop the gloves.

A sixth-round pick in 2020, Bauer was never a point producer in junior hockey, and that’s carried over to his time with the Moose. The Alberta native has only four goals and 16 points in 162 career AHL games, logging 291 penalty minutes and a -39 rating.

It’s a tad surprising to see Winnipeg dole out an NHL contract to Bauer since the possibility of a call-up at any point in his career is slim to none, unless he makes a move to forward to make him a more palatable enforcer. Nonetheless, it appears they view him as a valuable depth piece for his intangibles and will keep him in the system for another season after his entry-level contract expired two weeks ago.

Bauer will remain under team control next summer upon expiry. He’s still two years away from being eligible for Group VI unrestricted free agency, which he’ll almost certainly qualify for if he gets to that stage.

Winnipeg now has 43 contracts out of the maximum 50 on the books for this season and still has to sign RFAs Parker Ford, Dylan Samberg, and Gabriel Vilardi to new deals.

Jets Re-Sign Morgan Barron To Two-Year Deal

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According to Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman, the Winnipeg Jets have taken one of their restricted free agents off the board. Friedman reports that the Jets have re-signed Morgan Barron to a two-year, $3.7MM contract, with an AAV of $1.85MM.

As expected, Winnipeg and Barron came to an arrangement relatively quickly after the latter filed for salary arbitration on July 5th. The two parties were less than a week away from the start of arbitration hearings. Still, by filing for arbitration, Barron eliminated his opportunity to negotiate with other teams about an offer sheet, meaning both sides were in a comfortable spot.

The deal seems like a fair compromise for both sides. Ken Wiebe of the Winnipeg Free Press reported that Barron will earn a $1.7MM salary in the first year of the deal, and $2MM in the second. It’s only a moderate bump in pay from Barron’s previous $1.35MM salary, but the two-year structure will walk him into unrestricted free agency after the 2026-27 campaign.

It’s also a fair price for a center that is destined for a fourth-line role. After extending Vladislav Namestnikov and inking Jonathan Toews to a contract, the Jets effectively eliminated any chance for Barron to move up on the depth chart, assuming a healthy roster.

He’s a quality defensive center to have in a fourth-line role, despite having some noticeable flaws. He’s chipped in at times offensively, scoring 27 goals and 54 points in 224 games for Winnipeg over the last three years, averaging 11:19 of ice time per game. He’s averaged a strong 93.3% on-ice save percentage at even strength in Manitoba, but his 48.8% success rate in the faceoff dot leaves a lot to be desired, especially considering that he starts a majority of his shifts in the defensive zone.

Still, given his defensive prowess and the physicality he brings to the bottom of the lineup, the Jets have been willing to overlook a slightly subpar faceoff percentage from Barron. They’ll retain some continuity in their lineup, and Barron’s offensive contributions may increase next season, given the Jets’ additions of Gustav Nyquist, Tanner Pearson, and Cole Koepke this summer.

Photo courtesy of Walter Tychnowicz-Imagn Images.

Jets Re-Sign Isaak Phillips To Two-Year Contract

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The Jets have re-signed restricted free agent defenseman Isaak Phillips to a two-year contract, according to a team announcement. It’s unclear if it’s a one-way or two-way deal.

While playing his junior hockey with the OHL’s Sudbury Wolves, Phillips was drafted in the fifth round in 2020 by the Blackhawks. He got an early taste of pro hockey the following season when the OHL suspended operations due to COVID, playing for AHL Rockford in his post-draft year, and was able to remain there the following season thanks to his late September birthday. He bounced between leagues for much of his time with Chicago and successfully cleared waivers for the first time at the beginning of 2024-25.

Phillips, 23, was again shuttled between leagues through the early going of the campaign but was sent to the minors permanently in November. With his spot in the organization uncertain, the Hawks traded him to Winnipeg in January. He didn’t receive a recall after the trade, finishing the season with the AHL’s Manitoba Moose. He made just three NHL appearances in 2024-25, posting an assist and three hits while averaging a paltry 11:54 per game.

While a defensive defenseman first and foremost, Phillips had shown a degree of offensive competency in Rockford in the past that led some to believe he could have the all-around play necessary to become an everyday third-pairing piece. That wasn’t the case last season. He made 67 appearances between Rockford and Manitoba, only managing four goals and 16 points with a cumulative minus-three rating.

The 6’3″, 205-lb lefty may be valuable organizational depth for the Jets with his 238 games of AHL experience, but that lackluster showing in the minors doesn’t inspire confidence that he’ll realistically compete for a roster spot in the fall. Winnipeg has eight defensemen under contract who played at least 39 NHL games last season.

If Phillips doesn’t manage 24 NHL appearances over the next two seasons, he’ll be able to test unrestricted free agency early thanks to Group VI status. If he plays more than that, he’ll remain under Winnipeg’s control as an RFA upon expiry.

Riley Nash Announces Retirement

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Longtime depth center Riley Nash has retired from the NHL, he told Tyler Lowey of Castanet Kamloops.

Nash, 36, was an unrestricted free agent after spending 2024-25 under contract with the Rangers. He didn’t play at all last season while rehabbing what he told Lowey were a “variety of knee injuries” he sustained during the previous year while on assignment to AHL Hartford, spending his final professional season on the non-roster list.

“With three wonderful young kids and the way my body has behaved over the past few years, it was time to take a step back as an older guy and let others chase their dream the same way I did,” he told Lowey. “I consider myself very fortunate to have played in front of my kids over the last few years. They helped me regain the passion and love for the sport I had as a kid. Now was the right time to step away.”

The 6’2″, 187-lb pivot was the No. 21 overall selection in the 2007 draft by the Oilers, although he elected not to sign with one of the two clubs from his native Alberta. After winning an ECAC championship with Cornell in his junior campaign in 2009-10, he saw his signing rights flipped to the Hurricanes for a second-round pick.

Nash signed with Carolina a few weeks later. While he ended up having a true journeyman’s career, he did have some stability early on in the Hurricanes organization. He spent six seasons there, seeing NHL ice in the latter five, recording 31 goals, 50 assists, and 81 points in 242 games before reaching free agency in 2016.

Nash went on to see NHL ice for the Bruins, Blue Jackets, Maple Leafs, Jets, Lightning, Coyotes, and Rangers. He spent nearly a decade as a full-time AHL piece, going from 2013-14 to 2020-21 without seeing a minor-league assignment, frequently anchoring third and fourth lines. His best season came on a high-powered Bruins squad in 2017-18, setting career-highs across the board with 15 goals, 26 assists, 41 points, and a +16 rating while averaging 15:25 per game.

He spent the last few seasons of his career as a complementary AHL piece, serving as an alternate captain for the Charlotte Checkers in 2022-23 before spending his final healthy campaign with the Rangers’ affiliate in Hartford in 2023-24.

Nash concludes his pro career with 628 NHL appearances, scoring 63 goals, 113 assists and 176 points with a -11 rating in 13:09 of ice time per contest. He also scored 193 points in 312 AHL games in parts of seven seasons.

All of us at PHR wish Nash the best in retirement.

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