Red Wings Sign Trey Augustine To Entry-Level Deal
The Red Wings announced they’ve signed top goaltending prospect Trey Augustine to his three-year, entry-level deal. The contract won’t burn a year now – it’ll begin next season, and he’ll instead finish up the year on an amateur tryout with AHL Grand Rapids.
Augustine, a second-round pick in 2023, has far exceeded his draft billing so far in his development. The Michigan native finally turns pro after his junior season at Michigan State – opting to return for one more shot at a national championship with the Spartans despite most believing he was ready to make the jump last summer. After they were upset in the regional finals of the national tournament by Wisconsin, though, it was clear Augustine would be heading to either Detroit or Grand Rapids in short order.
It may be Grand Rapids for now, but next fall, Augustine will get an open competition with the Wings’ other high-end goalie prospect, Sebastian Cossa, to compete for the backup job behind John Gibson. Incumbent #2 Cam Talbot is a pending unrestricted free agent and, given his struggles this season and Detroit’s stocked pipeline, doesn’t appear likely to return.
The 6’1″, 194-lb Augustine already has several honors in his trophy case. He was the United States’ starter at three straight World Juniors – a highly unusual feat – and guided them to bronze in 2023 and back-to-back golds in 2024 and 2025. At the collegiate level, he helped Michigan State to a pair of Big 10 tournament championships, a pair of regular-season titles, and was named the conference’s top goaltender as both a sophomore and a junior.
A top-10 finalist for the Hobey Baker Award this year as the best player in college hockey, he put up a stellar .929 SV%, 2.11 GAA, three shutouts, and a 24-9-1 record in 34 outings for the Spartans as his final act. On the whole, he posted a .922 SV%, 2.40 GAA, and a 66-25-7 record in 99 games for MSU, leaving as arguably the second-best goaltender in program history behind ex-Sabres star Ryan Miller.
Augustine and Cossa were the Wings’ #4 and #5-ranked prospects by The Athletic’s Max Bultman earlier this year. The risk in his projection has always stemmed from his size rather than his numbers. But with how linear his development has been to this stage, there’s little reason to believe he can’t make a seamless jump to the pro ranks – especially if he’s arriving as an AHL starting option next season while Cossa, Detroit’s 2021 first-rounder with four full seasons of pro experience now behind him, gets the early nod as Gibson’s backup.
Mammoth Reassign Daniil But
The Mammoth reassigned left-winger Daniil But to AHL Tucson on Tuesday, according to a team announcement.
But, 21, was recalled from Tucson just last week. The 6’5″ rookie suited up in Utah’s 7-4 loss to the Capitals last Thursday. However, he only logged 9:08 of ice time with a -1 rating before heading to the press box for their 6-2 win over the Kings two days later.
With the Mammoth not back in action until Thursday against the Kraken amid an unusually lengthy break this time of year, there’s no sense in keeping But up, especially if he wasn’t going to re-enter the lineup later this week. They’re still without center Barrett Hayton, whose upper-body injury spurred But’s recall in the first place, but instead opted to insert Kailer Yamamoto into the lineup against L.A. in the spot But briefly held as their second-line left winger after the trio of But, Logan Cooley, and Dylan Guenther was outshot 4-2 and posted a 32.8 xGF% at 5-on-5 against Washington.
Selected 12th overall in 2023, the Mammoth have given But three separate recalls from Tucson this season and have played him exclusively in top-nine minutes when dressed, usually down on the third line with Michael Carcone and Jack McBain. His advanced numbers are strong, generating 3.24 shot attempts per game with a 55.2% Corsi share, but he’s been relatively stymied offensively with a 3-4–7 scoring line in 29 games. That’s an eight-goal, 20-point pace over 82 games.
They’ll get him a longer runway in Tucson, where he’s lit up the scoresheet for 16 goals and 33 points in 34 games. He’s shown more than enough there to put him squarely in contention for a roster spot next fall, but for now, it doesn’t look like Utah is keen on him as one of their top 12 forwards heading into what should be the franchise’s first trip to the playoffs.
Blackhawks’ Matt Grzelcyk, Artyom Levshunov Done For Season
Blackhawks defenders Matt Grzelcyk and Artyom Levshunov will not play again this season due to their respective upper-body injury and hand fracture, head coach Jeff Blashill told reporters Tuesday (including Ben Pope of the Chicago Sun-Times).
Grzelcyk, 32, hasn’t played since March 22 against the Flames and has already missed the Hawks’ last four games. He left quite early in that contest, potentially the last of his Blackhawks tenure.
Despite coming off a career-high 40 points with the Penguins last season, Grzelcyk didn’t land a guaranteed deal for this year until agreeing to a $1MM pact with Chicago on Oct. 5. Coming to the Blackhawks off a professional tryout, he ends his 2025-26 campaign with just 12 assists and a -9 rating in 69 games. His ice time average was way down at 16:58 per game, his lowest since his rookie year with the Bruins back in 2017-18.
Those numbers don’t tell the whole story, though. No Blackhawks defenseman has been stronger in the puck possession department this season than Grzelcyk. His 46.9% Corsi share and 45.7% expected goals share don’t look intriguing at face value, but sit first and second on the team at 5-on-5, respectively, per Natural Stat Trick, and the only defender with a better xGF% is Connor Murphy, who was shipped to the Oilers before the trade deadline. Grzelcyk did start 54.6% of his shifts in the offensive zone – definitely some advantageous deployment.
With even more young Hawks defenders pushing for full-time roles next season, namely Ethan Del Mastro and Kevin Korchinski, it’s hard to see a reunion happening. Grzelcyk is likely ticketed for his third trip through unrestricted free agency in as many years.
Levshunov, though, will almost definitely be back in a Blackhawks uniform next season, barring a blockbuster deal. The 2024 second overall pick is coming off his first full season of NHL hockey. The results weren’t spectacular. His growing pains were quite reminiscent of Korchinki’s rushed rookie season back in 2023-24, although he did look far more comfortable offensively than his older counterpart.
After sustaining the hand fracture last Friday against the Rangers, Levshunov’s year ends with 22 assists and 24 points in 68 games with a -41 rating that could end up as a league-worst. Averaging 19:35 of ice time per game, that rating came despite Levshunov being their most sheltered defenseman at 5-on-5 with a 65.5% offensive zone start rate.
Some of that can be attributed to goaltending. No Blackhawks defenseman received less support behind him this year than Levshunov, who ends up with a .895 on-ice save percentage at 5-on-5 with a .976 PDO. Still, his possession numbers were downright ugly considering the sheltering he received, and he’ll end his season with only 11 power-play points despite anchoring the top unit.
There’s certainly some more growth needed before he’s ready to sniff top-four minutes again, at least if Chicago has designs on contending for a playoff spot next season. Whether they’ll be aggressive in trying to acquire some higher-quality veteran stopgaps than they have in years past or just let their kids ride out their growing pains remains to be seen.
Stars, GM Jim Nill Agree To Two-Year Extension
The Stars and general manager Jim Nill have agreed to a two-year extension, the team announced Tuesday. Nill’s current deal was set to expire after this season, per Sean Shapiro of Elite Prospects, but it’s now clear he won’t be a candidate for any other GM vacancies this offseason.
Nill, 67, took over the GM’s chair in Dallas way back in 2013. When Doug Armstrong transitions out of his GM role with the Blues to serve as their president of hockey operations this summer, Nill will become the second-longest-tenured GM in the league behind only the Jets’ Kevin Cheveldayoff.
While the Stars have yet to win a Stanley Cup during his tenure, few would leave Nill off their list of the best of the best executives in the league. He has won the NHL’s GM of the Year award three years running and has finally emerged as a managerial fixture for Canada’s national team, serving as an assistant GM to Armstrong for their 4 Nations Face-Off championship last year and this year’s Olympic silver medal.
That’s not to say Nill doesn’t have any Stanley Cup rings. He has four of them, in fact, all with the Red Wings as their director of player development and then assistant GM to Ken Holland from 1994 to 2013.
Since Nill took the helm, he’s steered the Stars to a 549-345-125 (.600) record – the eighth-best in the league over the last 13 seasons. That includes a trip to the Stanley Cup Final in 2020 and three consecutive Western Conference Final appearances, although they’ll have their work cut out for them to get back there again this season in a cutthroat Central Division.
There’s few areas in which Nill doesn’t excel. His draft record, particularly in the mid-to-latter half of his tenure, is impeccable. He’s gotten great value out of late-first selections like Wyatt Johnston and Jake Oettinger, second-round picks like Roope Hintz and Jason Robertson, while nailing his only top-five pick with Miro Heiskanen at third overall in 2017.
There are few trades that haven’t worked out in his favor – even stretching back to his first summer on the job, when his Tyler Seguin/Loui Eriksson blockbuster with the Bruins has ended up paying dividends for his club more than a decade later. A look at the Stars’ books reveals very few negative-value contracts, aside from a free-agency misstep with Ilya Lyubushkin in 2024, which he’ll be trying to offload this summer.
Nill will now get to continue steering the ship with the Stars set for playoff and championship contention for another few years, at least. He’ll be joined by a slightly new-look group of assistants that now includes Rich Peverley – acquired as a player in that Seguin deal – who has been either behind the Stars’ bench or in their front office since a heart condition forced him into retirement in 2014.
Image courtesy of Christopher Hanewinckel-USA TODAY Sports.
Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet was first to report the news.
Penguins Reassign Ville Koivunen, Rutger McGroarty
The Penguins reassigned wingers Ville Koivunen and Rutger McGroarty to AHL Wilkes-Barre/Scranton following last night’s win over the Islanders, per the AHL’s transactions log. Neither dressed for that game but were listed as scratches.
Koivunen and McGroarty, viewed as the #5 and #3 prospects in the Pens’ system by Scott Wheeler of The Athletic, now must suit up at least once for the Baby Pens before being eligible for a recall again. Both their most recent summons were quite short. Koivunen has been on and off the roster a couple of times this month, but McGroarty was recalled last Saturday for the first time since the Olympic break.
There’s been a roster move out of Pittsburgh virtually every day as of late as they navigate some injuries, but they’ll do some trimming today ahead of their second half of a back-to-back against the Red Wings, in part because they got Sidney Crosby back in the lineup against the Isles after he missed a game with a lower-body injury. The pair of demotions leaves veteran Kevin Hayes, who hasn’t suited up since March 3, as the lone healthy extra.
Both Koivunen and McGroarty entered the lineup for Saturday’s loss to the Stars before sitting out last night. While both are enjoying exceptional minor-league campaigns, they haven’t been able to make the NHL impact that Pittsburgh surely hoped for entering the season. Both were held off the scoresheet against Dallas, bringing Koivunen’s pointless streak to six games with a 2-5–7 scoring line in 36 NHL appearances this year on the whole. McGroarty, who turned 22 yesterday, hasn’t been any better with a 2-3–5 line in 21 outings.
Their stocks may have dipped slightly from the beginning of the season as a result, but it’s still impossible to ignore that both have produced above a point per game in Wilkes-Barre/Scranton this year. Koivunen’s 11-22–33 scoring line is good for fifth on the team despite only playing in 29 games, while McGroarty has tossed up seven goals and 26 points in 25 games.
With the Pens’ NHL group healthier, the pair of 20-somethings will get some added development time down the stretch before being playoff options for Pittsburgh if need be. Their playoff chances jumped to 83.9% after last night’s trouncing of the Islanders, per MoneyPuck.
Panthers’ Evan Rodrigues Out For Season With Broken Finger
Panthers forward Evan Rodrigues is undergoing surgery to repair his broken finger and will not return this season, head coach Paul Maurice said Tuesday (via George Richards of Florida Hockey Now).
Rodrigues hasn’t played since March 26 against the Wild. He left that game after his first shift with the fracture and didn’t return. Maurice said he assumed Rodrigues’ season was over after the fact, but was still awaiting confirmation of whether he’d need surgery.
With nothing left to play for, there likely wasn’t any hesitation to opt for surgery on both ends. The Panthers aren’t mathematically eliminated from playoff contention yet, but sitting 15 points out with nine games to go, while on a three-game losing streak, their season will end in April for the first time since 2019.
Injuries were really the only storyline in Sunrise this season. Rodrigues’ year will end with a comparably respectable 69 games played that could still very well end up being top 10 on the team when all is said and done. The 32-year-old did his part to step up in the absence of multiple top-six names, putting up an 11-20–31 scoring line. That goal output is his lowest at face value since the 2020-21 campaign, but his 0.45 points per game is right in line with his career average and a step up from last season’s 0.39, his worst as a Panther.
Rodrigues will be eligible to sign an extension on July 1. He will be entering the final season of the four-year, $12MM contract he signed with Florida as a free agent in 2023.
Canadiens’ Alexandre Carrier Out Two To Four Weeks
Canadiens defenseman Alexandre Carrier will miss two to four weeks with an upper-body injury, the team announced Tuesday. Montreal recalled Adam Engstrom from AHL Laval yesterday to replenish their blue-line depth with Carrier sidelined.
In all likelihood, Carrier’s regular season is over. The Habs’ last game is on April 14, two weeks to the day from today’s announcement. With a playoff berth all but locked up, there’s no need to rush him back for any regular-season action in the hope that he can be ready for Game 1 of the first round. If he’s out closer to four weeks, though, he may not be an option until the elimination-game stage – or even the early second round, if the Canadiens make it there without him.
Carrier logged a full game’s worth of action in his last appearance against the Hurricanes on Sunday, skating 19:05 of ice time with a +1 rating. There was no apparent injury that hobbled him during the game, nor did he ever head to the room.
The 29-year-old has spent the year either as Montreal’s second or third-pairing right-shot option. Outside of their top pairing of Mike Matheson and Noah Dobson, their defense combos have been in a blender all year long.
It’s the penalty kill where the Habs will feel Carrier’s absence the most. A good chunk of his time has come shorthanded, where he forms half of the top unit’s blue line with Matheson and has averaged over three minutes per game this season. The results haven’t been great, though. The Habs allow 10.6 goals per 60 minutes when Carrier is on the ice shorthanded, the highest figure among their four regular penalty killers.
On the whole, Carrier has put up a 7-15–22 scoring line with a +2 rating in 77 outings. That’s right around the offense he produced for the majority of last season after the Canadiens swapped Justin Barron to the Predators for him in December. He’s settling in around that 25-point pace for a career average, and he hasn’t varied from it too much over the past three years.
The Habs are carrying seven healthy defensemen with Engstrom’s recall, but, due to forwards Josh Anderson, Kirby Dach, and Alexandre Texier being unavailable, dressed Arber Xhekaj as a winger in Sunday’s win over the Hurricanes. If Anderson and Texier, who are both day-to-day, still can’t go tonight against the Lightning, Xhekaj will likely suit up on the fourth line again, while the left-shot Engstrom enters the lineup on his off side to replace Carrier.
Lightning Sign Noah Steen To Entry-Level Deal
The Lightning signed winger prospect Noah Steen to a two-year, entry-level contract on Monday that begins next season, PuckPedia reports. The deal has a total value of $1.95MM, with a cap hit of $972.5K. He will be owed a qualifying offer of $990K upon expiry as a restricted free agent in 2028.
Steen will earn a prorated base salary of $850K in 2026-27 and $900K in 2027-28, based on how much of the schedule, if any, he’s in the NHL. That’s accompanied by a yearly signing bonus of $97.5K and up to $27.5K in performance bonuses next season. His minor-league salary in both years of the contract will be $85K.
Tampa Bay had just over two months left to sign the 21-year-old before they risked losing his exclusive signing rights on June 1. The 6’1″ Norwegian was a seventh-round pick in 2024, two years after he was initially eligible for selection. After spending his earlier development climbing through Sweden’s junior ranks and then making the jump to the pro level in the second-tier HockeyAllsvenskan, Steen has been playing top-flight European pro hockey since the puck dropped on the 2024-25 campaign.
Viewed as a potential penalty kill specialist near the bottom of the lineup, Steen showed this season he may be more than that. After only scoring five goals and one assist in 51 games in his first season with Örebro HK of the Swedish Hockey League last year, he broke out for a 12-10–22 scoring line in 52 games here in 2025-26. That’s the same points per game rate he posted in his only full season of second-division play with Mora IK two years ago.
Steen’s existing contract with Örebro runs through 2026-27. That makes him subject to the NHL’s transfer agreement with the SHL, which stipulates that, as a non-first-round pick under the age of 24, he must be offered back to Örebro first if he doesn’t make the Lightning’s roster out of training camp in the fall before they can assign him to AHL Syracuse. With that in mind, there’s no guarantee he’ll play in North America next season, but he could do so in the back half of his entry-level deal if Örebro doesn’t retain his rights for 2027-28.
Steen wasn’t included as a top-10 prospect in Tampa’s system by Steven Ellis of Daily Faceoff last offseason, but he did jump into 10th place in Scott Wheeler of The Athletic’s rankings earlier this month. He “can play with jump and has good goal-scoring instincts around the offensive zone,” Wheeler wrote, but his ceiling “might top out as a second-line SHLer/AHLer.”
West Notes: Makar, Klingberg, Dellandrea
Colorado Avalanche superstar Cale Makar left mid-game against the Flames tonight and would not return, per the team. The defender left late in the second period with an apparent upper body injury, but it was not immediately obvious what happened.
Makar is putting his final touches on what has been another remarkable campaign, not yet missing a single game and posting 72 points in as many games. He’s third in team scoring, but would be ranked first by a wide margin on several other clubs. The electric skater also averages just one second under 25 minutes a night.
One of just two teams to already have a playoff spot locked down (Dallas), Colorado is closing in on the Presidents’ Trophy which would be their first since 2020-21, and their fourth in franchise history. It goes without saying that losing Makar would be a crushing blow, especially as he’s evidently been shaken up in a lower stakes game against his hometown team that got quickly out of hand on the scoreboard.
There’s plenty of reason for optimism though, as the 27-year-old has been extremely durable throughout his career, and exited the contest quietly. Updates will be watched closely post-game, with the hope that their #1 defenseman is right back at it Wednesday against Vancouver.
Elsewhere across the league:
- Veteran John Klingberg was a morning skate participant, observed by Curtis Pashelka, San Jose Beat Writer. The defenseman has missed three straight with an upper body injury, including tonight, yet it’s encouraging news nonetheless as the Sharks look to close the book on 2025-26 in a good way. After bouncing around across several teams with an uncertain future from injury toll, the former star has settled nicely as a Shark, with 24 points in 54 games on over 20 minutes a game and staying relatively healthy for a change. The 33-year-old will hit free agency again this summer and it’ll be interesting to see if San Jose keeps him around given the results.
- Forward Ty Dellandrea’s status has improved to day-to-day, reported by Sheng Peng of San Jose Hockey Now. Unfortunately he’s had to miss the last 30 games with a lower-body injury, not in the lineup since early January, but it’s looking like the role player will get some more action before 2025-26 comes to an end. Once a high draft pick by Dallas, the 25-year-old has become a true bottom six center capable of killing penalties and forechecking. Dellandrea has just 11 points on the season, along with poor metrics at even strength, but he’s winning faceoffs at a 52.3% rate, and offers size at 6’2”. His efforts earned a two-year extension signed earlier this month, as the Ontario native has found a home on the exciting young team.
Sharks Reassign Laurent Brossoit, Yaroslav Askarov To Return
Ahead of tonight’s game against St. Louis, the San Jose Sharks reassigned Laurent Brossoit to the AHL’s San Jose Barracuda. With this move in mind, it became apparent that starter Yaroslav Askarov is set to return to the crease, confirmed by Max Miller of Sharks Hockey Digest.
Brossoit has been back and forth in the past few weeks, last summoned three days ago. Throughout that time he’s only managed to play in one game, March 15 against Ottawa, where he took a loss in a rough outing. Even then, the 33-year-old deserves props for working his way back to the highest level after numerous injuries cast doubt on his career.
In 15 games with the Barracuda, Brossoit has been one of the AHL’s premier netminders, boasting a .915 save percentage and winning 11 of his 15 contests. As far as #3 depth goaltenders go, the Sharks feature a strong one in the British Columbia native with 141 games of NHL experience. He should have the opportunity to lead the San Jose farm hands into the postseason.
Meanwhile, Askarov’s return makes for an exciting end of the season for Sharks fans. It has been a tough month for the show stopping 23-year-old, who returned from a 16-day absence last week only to be injured again against the Blues. Thankfully it doesn’t appear to be serious, and he’ll come back against the same opponent four days later.
Askarov, thought to be one of the game’s best young goalies, hasn’t put it all together just yet. He’s struggled at times with a 3.52 goals against average and an .888 save percentage, slightly above the .500 win rate. Still, the Russian flashes his brilliance regularly and there’s usually a learning curve for any such prospect, especially adjusting as part of a growing team.
The Sharks are set up with young talent across the lineup, and Askarov will look to finish the campaign on a high note before continuing to improve with the club in 2026 and beyond.