Flames Linked To Tyson Gross
Calgary native Tyson Gross is one of the top undrafted free agents available coming out of college this season. His hometown Flames are on the shortlist of teams the center is considering signing with, and he will make his decision in the next few days, Eric Francis of Sportsnet reports.
Gross, 23, just wrapped up his junior season with St. Cloud State. Serving as the team’s captain, he doubled his previous career high in goals en route to an 18-23–41 scoring line in 36 games. The 6’3″, 194-lb pivot saw his season end last week, getting swept 2-0 by Minnesota-Duluth in the quarterfinals of the NCHC tournament. They won’t be getting an at-large berth to the national tournament, so Gross ends his career in St. Cloud with 34 goals, 52 assists, and 86 points across 106 games over the last three years.
There’s little reason to believe Gross will replicate those offensive totals at the NHL level, but there’s a chance he can carve out a role as a depth checking center in Calgary or be a higher-end minor-league piece. He was initially draft-eligible back in 2021. He’d played just nine junior ‘A’ games that year due to COVID and was understandably passed over. Even against tougher competition in the USHL in his post-draft year, though, he only managed eight points in 23 games with the Fargo Force. It wasn’t until moving to the Cedar Rapids RoughRiders for his DY+2 that he came out of his shell as a playmaker, and he was able to carry that momentum directly into a 20-point freshman season at St. Cloud.
The Flames are in need of some size down the middle in their prospect pool, so their interest in Gross makes sense. Their situation improved somewhat when they acquired the signing rights to 6’2″, 203-lb Jonathan Castagna from the Mammoth in the MacKenzie Weegar deal, and Francis reports the junior center is also open to turning pro with the Flames when his season at Cornell wraps up.
Blackhawks Reassign Drew Commesso
The Blackhawks are sending goaltender Drew Commesso back to AHL Rockford, per Tracey Myers of NHL.com. He had been recalled under emergency conditions over the weekend after Spencer Knight was sidelined with an illness, but he’s now cleared to return and will be available for tomorrow’s road outing against the Mammoth.
Now in his second season seeing NHL action, the 23-year-old has made three starts for the Hawks this year, posting a .918 SV%, 2.31 GAA, and a 2-1-0 record. That’s a significant step forward from what the 2020 second-rounder showed in his first NHL start last year, allowing four goals on 24 shots against the Devils in his lone appearance. After recording a win over Utah on Monday in his only showing on this call-up, he’s now saved 1.6 goals above expected and, in a small sample, has been Chicago’s analytically strongest goalie this year on a per-60 basis with a 0.528 GSAx/60, per MoneyPuck.
Nearly six years on from being drafted, Commesso remains Chicago’s top goalie prospect and is the #7-ranked player in their pool overall, writes Ben Pope of the Chicago Sun-Times. His promising NHL starts this season do run in contrast to what’s been a career-worst season for Commesso in Rockford, though. After coming up with a .906 and .911 SV% in his first two pro seasons, respectively, he’s logging a .899 SV% and 3.07 GAA in 28 games this year with a 9-16-3 record. Those numbers aren’t all on Commesso, though – Rockford has been a tough defensive environment this season, and those are still far superior numbers to backup Stanislav Berezhnoy‘s.
Several Teams Showing Interest In Vitali Pinchuk
March 11, 2026: Fast-forward to nearly the end of the KHL’s regular season, and Pinchuk’s output has only improved throughout the year. He’s now up to 30 goals and 62 points in 61 games for Minsk. Now, Thomas Drance of The Athletic reports that virtually every team in the league – 29 of them, to be exact – has reached out to Pinchuk’s camp to try to get him landed on an entry-level deal.
Nov. 6, 2025: There are still several months to go until the end of the regular season, when the international free agent market begins to pick up. Nonetheless, European leagues start their seasons earlier than the NHL, meaning sample sizes are large enough by the time November rolls around for teams to begin to identify breakout targets.
One of those names to keep an eye out for is Belarusian center Vitali Pinchuk, Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet reports. “Several teams” have made contact with his representation as he mulls a jump to North America following the conclusion of his season with Dinamo Minsk of the Kontinental Hockey League, where he’s spent the vast majority of his professional career.
Pinchuk, 23, isn’t a total stranger to North American hockey. He was initially draft eligible in 2020 and spent that season in the Ontario Hockey League in hopes of boosting his chances of being picked. The 6’3″, 203-lb pivot recorded 13 goals and 34 points in 54 games with a -12 rating, but wasn’t picked. When the OHL closed its doors for the 2020-21 season due to the pandemic, Pinchuk returned to Belarus, where he has remained ever since.
He made his KHL debut for Dinamo the following year. He was a fixture of Belarus’ teams at the World Juniors until the country was banned from international competition by the IIHF for its part in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine – in fact, he was named the country’s top young player in 2021. His development has been a slow burn, but he had his first meaningful breakthrough in the 2023-24 season. After posting limited point totals in bottom-six jobs over the previous few years and struggling to stay in the lineup, he worked his way into a top-nine job with Dinamo with nine goals and 22 points in 43 games.
It was last season that Pinchuk began to take on star status in the KHL. Dinamo’s 39-21-8 record last season was its best in eight years, and Pinchuk finished second on the club with 25 goals and fifth with 43 points in 66 games. This season, the club is off to a torrid 13-5-3 start with Pinchuk clicking at a point per game, logging a 9-12–21 scoring line through 21 contests.
A point-per-game season in the more offensively conservative KHL is no small feat. Only three players hit the mark last season after seven achieved it in 2023-24. Keeping up that pace will be challenging for Pinchuk, but even still, he’s one of only 13 names with at least five games played at this point in the year to be at or above the mark.
Pinchuk turns 24 in January, so that will be his signing age if he inks an NHL contract next summer. That limits him to landing a one-year, entry-level contract that would make him a restricted free agent in 2027.
Mammoth Sign Nick Schmaltz To Eight-Year Extension
The Mammoth announced that they’ve signed forward Nick Schmaltz to an eight-year extension worth $8MM per season, a total value of $64MM. Set to hit unrestricted free agency this summer, he’s now staying in Utah through the 2033-34 campaign. There are no signing bonuses in the deal, per PuckPedia. He’ll be paid entirely in base salary, earning $10MM from 2026-27 through 2028-29, $8MM from 2029-30 through 2030-31, and $6MM from 2031-32 through 2033-34. The deal also comes with a no-movement clause for the first two years. Starting in 2028-29, it downgrades to a full no-trade clause, then again to a 16-team no-trade list in 2030-31 and an eight-team no-trade list in 2032-33.
Amid what could now be a historically thin UFA class this summer, Schmaltz was going to be the leading target if he made it there. One could make the argument that he was just one of two forwards, along with Alex Tuch, available who could comfortably slot into a first-line role, Evgeni Malkin and Alex Ovechkin notwithstanding.
Still, it’s no surprise to see Schmaltz commit for what could be the rest of his career to the team he’s been with for nearly seven seasons and 500 games, dating back to when the Mammoth’s predecessor, the Coyotes, acquired him from the Blackhawks for Dylan Strome in 2019. He already committed long-term to the organization once, quickly moving to sign a seven-year deal after his acquisition that saw him get paid $5.85MM per season. He now re-ups on a contract that only carries an extremely modest increase in cap hit percentage at the start of the deal from 7.2% to 7.7%. While it’s a significant raise in actual cash, it’s not a huge bump in market value.
Schmaltz has never hit 70 points in a single season, but he’ll lock in his third consecutive 60-point campaign with his next point and will end up at 75 points by the end of the regular season if he keeps up his current pace. He’d previously topped the 0.90 points per game mark twice in back-to-back years with Arizona in 2021-22 and 2022-23, although injuries limited him to about 75% of the schedule each time.
The 30-year-old’s resurgence comes after a couple of relatively down seasons. He’s had no trouble staying healthy now, but did see his points per game average drop to 0.77 across Arizona’s last season in 2023-24 and Utah’s first in 2024-25. That also came with -16 and -15 ratings, the worst two figures of his career.
The under-the-hood numbers never dipped too much, though. Quietly, Schmaltz has been one of the better play-driving forwards in the league over the past several seasons. He hasn’t had a net negative Corsi impact at 5-on-5 in a full season as a Coyote/Clubber/Mammoth and has taken things to new heights this season, controlling 55.0% of shot attempts, 55.2% of expected goals, and 55.2% of scoring chances at 5-on-5 this year. A natural center, he’s spent most of his career on the wing but has shifted back to the pivot position this year amid Barrett Hayton‘s struggles and subsequent demotion down the depth chart. He’s now Utah’s top-line pivot between lefty Clayton Keller and a rotation of Lawson Crouse, Dylan Guenther, and JJ Peterka on his right flank.
Schmaltz’s value comes from his reliable output and playmaking skills. He’s not particularly flashy, doesn’t have a “star-level” gear to unlock at this stage, and only lays a hit about once every five games. But he’s been a consistent top-six producer ever since first stepping into Arizona’s lineup seven years ago, and his versatility down the middle and on the wing is attractive to a Utah club that has a bevy of forward prospects still coming up the ranks.
After registering his extension, Utah still has $17.9MM in projected cap space available for next season, but that’s with eight open roster spots (an average of $2.24MM per player). Luckily, they don’t have anyone to sign who will cost significantly more than that.
Image courtesy of Brad Penner-Imagn Images.
Flyers Sign Noah Powell To Entry-Level Contract
The Flyers have signed right-winger Noah Powell to his entry-level contract, the team announced. The deal runs for three years and doesn’t begin until next season, taking him from 2026-27 through 2028-29. However, he’ll be able to suit up with AHL Lehigh Valley down the stretch this season.
Powell, 21, was the Flyers’ fifth-round pick in 2024. The 6’2″ sniper was selected from Dubuque in the United States Hockey League as an overager, leading the league in goals with 43 in 61 contests after going undrafted in 2023.
Since then, his development has taken a couple of twists and turns in a short amount of time. He was an Ohio State commit and joined the Buckeyes’ roster for 2024-25 as a 20-year-old freshman. He didn’t make a great first impression on the college circuit, though. After recording two goals and five points and 17 games, he left the team midseason to return to junior hockey – this time north of the border with Oshawa in the OHL. He was more impactful with the Generals, posting a 9-13–22 scoring line in 28 games to close out the year, but that’s still a moderately underwhelming stat line for a player two seasons removed from his draft-eligible year.
Powell has returned to NCAA play for 2025-26, transferring to Arizona State. The sophomore’s season ended in February, with the Sun Devils failing to qualify for the national tournament or the NCHC playoffs. His seven goals in 34 games finished tied with five other players for fourth on the team, while his 12 points were tied for ninth.
It is jarring to see a forward whose main talent in junior play was goal-scoring opt to turn pro after just two collegiate seasons with a rather limited offensive track record to show for it. Perhaps the Flyers are more interested in developing the 201-lb winger as a bottom-six checking piece and feel his development is better served by making an earlier transition to pro hockey in Lehigh Valley rather than staying in college.
Candiens Recall Jacob Fowler
The Canadiens announced that they’ve recalled goaltender Jacob Fowler from AHL Laval. With no corresponding moves or injuries, arguably the top goalie prospect in the world returns to Montreal’s NHL roster to potentially form a three-goalie rotation down the stretch with Jakub Dobes and Sam Montembeault.
Fowler, 21, was a third-round pick in 2023. Five other goalies were taken before him in that class, including another top-five goalie prospect in Detroit’s Trey Augustine, but he’s the first one from the group to have made his NHL debut.
It remains to be seen whether Fowler’s recall is simply to get him a spot start tonight against the Senators or if it’ll lead to a heftier handful of NHL starts down the stretch. The Habs, who’ve gotten inconsistent play from Dobes and Montembeault all year long, first recalled Fowler in early December. After starting him in back-to-back games to open his NHL career, head coach Martin St. Louis committed quite strictly to a nightly three-goalie rotation.
Fowler made 10 starts before being returned to Laval in mid-January, posting a 4-4-2 record with a .902 SV% and 2.62 GAA with one shutout. He ended on a bit of a sour note, allowing four goals on 26 shots against the Sabres, and he only had a .900 mark once in his last five starts. Nonetheless, his 1.8 goals saved above expected over the sample still exceed what Dobes and Montembeault have produced over the entire season, per MoneyPuck, and his raw numbers are preferable as well.
Coming out of the Olympic break, Montreal has moved to essentially anoint Dobes as the starter and Montembeault as the backup, deviating from a rotation. Montembeault has only started two of six since the Olympic break, one coming in the first half of a back-to-back, and has recorded extra-time losses in both with sub-.850 save percentages. Dobes, on the other hand, has won three of four and has been exceptional in those wins, although the loss – allowing six goals on 27 shots (.778 SV%) against the Sharks last week – was a real stinker.
Meanwhile, Fowler has only consistently improved in the minors in his first pro season. The 6’2″ netminder has started seven out of Laval’s last 10 and has a .923 SV% in that span, moving his numbers on the year up to a .916, 2.23 GAA, three shutouts, and a 19-7-2 record in 27 appearances.
Fowler’s immediate transition to being a top-level AHL starter comes after two dominant seasons at Boston College. He compiled a .932 SV% and 1.90 GAA in 74 games as the Eagles’ starter, being named a Hockey East First Team All-Star on both occasions and winning the Mike Richter Award for the NCAA’s top collegiate goalie as a sophomore.
Rangers Reassign Brett Berard
9:30 PM: Berard’s time with the big club was brief, as he is headed back to AHL Hartford, according to a team announcement. New York shut out Calgary tonight, with the 23-year-old a healthy scratch. The club now has no extra forwards, so another domino is expected to fall before Thursday’s game at Winnipeg. J.T. Miller could be due to return from injured reserve.
12:40 PM: The Rangers swapped out Brendan Brisson for Brett Berard on their active roster, the team announced. Brisson heads back to AHL Hartford after being recalled twice in the last month, while Berard, a fellow left-winger, returns to the roster after being sent down from his last recall in late February.
Brisson, 24, had appeared in 24 games with the Golden Knights over the past two seasons before New York acquired him for Reilly Smith at last year’s deadline. He’s made just three NHL appearances since the deal, all coming in the last two weeks. He’s managed an assist, a -1 rating, and three shot attempts while averaging 10:35 of ice time per game.
The 29th overall pick in the first round by Vegas back in 2020, Brisson was a flat-out star at the University of Michigan and showed real potential in his first couple of AHL seasons, including eight points in a 15-game call-up to the Knights in 2023-24. His game has gone completely off the rails ever since. In 110 AHL games since the beginning of last year, he’s put up a more pedestrian 22-30–52 scoring line with a disastrous -48 rating.
Despite his team-worst -15 mark this year, Brisson is still Hartford’s fourth-leading scorer. He’s an extremely cerebral winger but no longer appears to have the speed or physical drive to make a long-term NHL impact. The Blueshirts could continue to give him chances until they lose team control over him in 2029, but he’s looking more like a higher-end minor-league piece than a depth NHL scorer.
Berard, 23, never had lofty expectations like Brisson, but has taken a similar step back in his development as of late. A fifth-rounder in 2020, he had 25 goals for Hartford as a first-year pro in 2023-24 and worked his way into fringe top-nine minutes for the Rangers the following year, notching six goals and 10 points through his first 35 NHL games.
He’s gone pointless in 13 big-league contests across a few call-ups this year, though, and his AHL production has been lacking as well. The 5’9″ lefty has only six goals and 22 points in 39 games for Hartford with a -14 mark.
Evening Notes: Ristolainen, Copp, Stanley
With the dust mostly settled from last Friday’s trade deadline, stories continue to emerge. Anthony DiMarco of The Daily Faceoff wrote on Philadelphia’s decision to retain Rasmus Ristolainen despite being a long way from playoff contention.
It is thought that the Flyers sought a Brandon Carlo-type package for the 31-year-old, with a first-round pick and a notable prospect. Unconventional is a word which could describe Philadelphia’s trade deadline, as their headlining move was dealing young forward Bobby Brink to Minnesota in exchange for David Jiříček.
Reasonable frustration from fans aside, GM Daniel Briere’s focus on the future actually ties into how they handled the Ristolainen situation. Mentioned by DiMarco, the club evaluated its internal right-handed defense pipeline, headlined by Oliver Bonk and the newly-acquired Jiříček. The former has played well with AHL Lehigh Valley, but still just 31 games into his professional career, the Flyers do not want to rush Bonk.
On the other hand, Jiříček is a reclamation project. He failed to record a single point in 25 games with the high flying Wild prior to the trade, with poor possession metrics and AHL output which is hardly anything to write home about either. The former sixth overall pick (2022) will have to find his game with AHL Lehigh Valley before any role with the Flyers becomes a possibility.
The Flyers determined that Ristolainen and his $5.1MM which runs through next year is worth keeping around for now. Even if Briere obtained draft capital for the 6’4” righty, likely below his asking price, it would cost more than their return for a replacement, not to mention the rushing of prospects. The Finn will go into 2026-27 as his sixth season as a Flyer, where he’ll turn 32 in October, and be a near-lock for a trade later on.
Elsewhere across the league:
- The Detroit Red Wings shared mid-game that Andrew Copp won’t return due to a lower body injury. The center was shaken up after a draw with Florida’s Tomáš Nosek, who fell onto his leg. Already without Dylan Larkin, it’s another blow for the club, but thankfully their captain won’t be out for long. Regardless, the Wings passed on the opportunity to acquire a top center at the trade deadline, a decision which may age poorly if Copp will miss an extended period. As it’s a suspected knee injury, there’s reason for much concern. The 31-year-old Michigan native is on pace for his best season in Detroit with 36 points in 64 games, not yet missing a contest this year. He has been great on draws, snapping them back at a 54.6% success rate.
- One suitor forced to pivot from Ristolainen as discussed above, the red-hot Buffalo Sabres welcomed their acquisition Logan Stanley into the lineup tonight per Paul Hamilton of WGR Sports Radio. The former Winnipeg Jet was dealing with visa issues, a common occurrence for players traded between Canada and the United States. Debuting on the third pairing alongside Michael Kesselring, Stanley wasted no time endearing himself to Buffalo fans as he fought San Jose’s Zack Ostapchuk. The 6’7” lefty will try to make noise as a Sabre as he heads into free agency this summer.
Snapshots: Schenn, Kerins, Gustafsson
Set for just his second game as a New York Islander, Brayden Schenn takes on his former squad tonight in St. Louis, where he’d served as captain as part of his nine years wearing the note. He offered some insight into the decision to waive his no-trade clause, despite New York being on his 16-team no-trade list.
Apparently it wasn’t the first time the Blues tried to move their captain. As shared by Jeremy Rutherford of The Athletic, Schenn said “Well, when (the Blues) ask you two times two years in a row, that’s when it makes sense.” “At some point, the organization doesn’t see you as part of the picture, and other teams want you, and it’s good to be wanted. They’re going in a different direction, and that’s the reality of it.”
While the respected Schenn has taken it personally to a degree, it’s hard to argue with St. Louis’ decision to move on, as it netted them a first-round pick and other assets for a declining 34-year-old signed for two more years at $6.5MM. Curiously however, it appears the club attempted to move him at some point last year, despite St. Louis making the playoffs and pushing the Presidents’ Trophy Winnipeg Jets to the brink in the first round.
Few would have predicted the Islanders to become his fourth organization, but the team has a strong shot to return to the postseason where they’ll hope to win a round for the first time since 2021.
Tonight will be emotional for Schenn who was a constant presence in St. Louis, appearing in all 82 games four times as a Blue. The veteran is surely energized in his second line center role with the opportunity to help the upstart Islanders continue to surpass expectations.
Elsewhere across the league:
- Flames prospect Rory Kerins was injured playing in the AHL with the Calgary Wranglers, and he’ll be week to week with a lower-body ailment, as noted by Ryan Pike of Flames Nation. The forward was a steal in the sixth round of the 2020 draft, but he’s still working toward an NHL role at age 23. Kerins has been highly productive in the AHL, leading the Wranglers in scoring over the past two seasons, but only appearing in seven NHL games so far, where he’s notched four helpers. It’s tough news considering that Calgary is 31st in the league, and Kerins could have gotten another look this spring, last playing with the big club in November. The Wranglers are hardly faring better this season, so GM Craig Conroy will have little hesitation to call up young players in the dog days of the season. Kerins will hopefully get healthy in time to be one such candidate.
- Nashville Predators defense prospect Viggo Gustafsson, who signed his ELC with the club last week, will join the AHL’s Milwaukee Admirals next year and leave Sweden, as reported in a HockeySverige article by Simon Eld. Nashville, typically known for their knack to develop defensemen, hasn’t had overly noticeable figures come down the pipeline in several years. They’ll hope Gustafsson, their third-round selection in 2024, will have a seamless transition to the North American game and potentially pan out as a third-pairing blueliner. In 40 games with AIK of HockeyAllsvenskan, the 19-year-old lefty has just eight points, but he brings a physical game at 6’2”.
Anders Lee Hopes To Retire With Islanders
The New York Islanders have undergone a lot of transformation in recent years. Many of the team’s cornerstone pieces have moved on – with Brock Nelson and Noah Dobson traded away and Josh Bailey, Cal Clutterbuck, and Matt Martin calling their playing careers to a close. Amid those major shifts, and the development of New York’s next generation, Islanders captain Anders Lee said there’s “no doubt” he wants to retire an Islander per RG’s DJ Siddiqi.
Lee has spent his entire NHL career in New York. The Islanders landed him in the sixth-round of the 2009 NHL Draft, amid questions about the high school dual-athlete’s future. He committed fully to hockey with a move to the USHL that turned into four seasons at the University of Notre Dame. Like he did in high school, Lee managed strong scoring in every season of his junior career, ramping him nicely into a debut with the Islanders in 2013.
Lee didn’t play through his rookie NHL season until the 2014-15 season. He was an immediate impact in New York, netting 25 goals and 41 points in 76 games. That season still stands as one of only six seasons where an Islanders rookie scored at least 20 goals, a list most recently added to by defenseman Matthew Schaefer.
With that performance, Lee took off. He became a consistent scorer near the top of New York’s lineup and reached 34 goals, then 40 goals, in the 2016-17 and 2017-18 seasons respectively. The Islanders named Lee team captain on the heels of those performances, following the departure of John Tavares. The Islanders blazed their way to the 2020 Eastern Conference Finals in Lee’s second season wearing the ‘C’, their deepest playoff run since the 1993 playoffs. New York wasn’t able to pull above the eventual Stanley Cup-winning Tampa Bay Lightning and have only returned to the postseason in three of the six seasons since.
But the 2025-26 campaign seems different. The Islanders stand third in the Metropolitan Division, only one point and one game behind the Pittsburgh Penguins in second place. Much of their resurgence has been driven by Calder Trophy-favorite Schaefer, though the Islanders have also received strong performances from Ilya Sorokin, Mathew Barzal, and Bo Horvat. A 35-year-old Lee has also continued to stand tall, netting 15 goals and 35 points in 64 games, good for fourth on the team in total scoring.
With that mix of top-end firepower and performing depth, the Islanders are well-positioned for another strong run in the postseason. They will have to negotiate a new deal with their captain on the other side of the playoffs, following the end of his current seven-year, $7MM contract. Lee’s scoring and lineup role have both dwindled since he last signed a contract – but he still brings an impact worth hanging onto.
New York is projected to carry $15.21MM in cap space into the off-season, per PuckPedia, with the majority of their lineup locked into multi-season contracts. That will make re-signing Lee a top priority before free agency opens. Convincing him to take a slight discount from his current salary – perhaps down to $6MM per season – could leave the Islanders with plenty of space to add a difference-maker on the open market.