NHL

With the NHL electing to cram as much offseason activity as possible into a few short days, it was quite a busy week around the NHL.  We’ll recap the biggest stories here which are much too plentiful to summarize in just five headlines.

Draft Night: It was a draft that was supposed to feature plenty of intrigue, especially on the trade front.  Instead, not a single swap materialized.  However, there was a surprise at the beginning of the draft.  While Chicago picked Connor Bedard first as expected, Anaheim opted to not go with the consensus second choice, instead selecting Leo Carlsson.  That freed up Columbus to grab that consensus second choice, Hobey Baker Award winner Adam Fantilli.  The full results of the draft can be found here.

Chicago Adds Veterans: Following the addition of Bedard, the Blackhawks decided that they needed to bring in some quality veterans to help take some pressure off him (and also to get to the cap floor).  They did that by acquiring Taylor Hall and Nick Foligno from Boston in exchange for defensemen Alec Regula and Ian Mitchell.  Hall has two years left on his deal with a $6MM AAV and will give Bedard a legitimate top-six winger to play with.  Foligno, meanwhile, was a pending unrestricted free agent but quickly inked a one-year, $4MM deal to stick around; Chicago handed that same agreement to Corey Perry days later.  Boston, meanwhile, used that freed-up cap space to sign several players to short-term contracts early in free agency.

Busy Buyout Market: The buyout market started with a splash when Vancouver bought out Oliver Ekman-Larsson.  It ended with one too as Winnipeg was unable to find a taker for Blake Wheeler, instead buying out the final year and $8.5MM on his contract, taking on $2.75MM in dead cap charges for the next two years.  That wasn’t the priciest one of the week either as Nashville somewhat surprisingly bought out the final three years and $24MM of Matt Duchene’s contract, taking on more than $19MM in dead cap charges spread out over the next six seasons.  Detroit (Kailer Yamamoto) and Boston (Mike Reilly) also executed buyouts on the final day.

Dubois Traded: After many months of speculation, Pierre-Luc Dubois is on the move.  However, it wasn’t to Montreal where it was believed his preference would be to play.  Instead, he was dealt to Los Angeles in exchange for Gabriel Vilardi, Alex Iafallo, Rasmus Kupari, and a 2024 second-round pick; as part of the trade agreement, Dubois signed an eight-year, $68MM contract.  Dubois will team up with Anze Kopitar and Phillip Danault to form one of the deepest center groups in the NHL while serving as Kopitar’s eventual replacement when the captain calls it a career.  As for Winnipeg, they get a pair of top-six forwards headlined by the 23-year-old Vilardi who put up 41 points in 63 games last season.  They’re looking to stay in the playoff mix and while they don’t have a top-end talent in Dubois anymore, their forward group is certainly deeper now.

Eight For Meier: The Devils were in a situation where they skirted the $10MM qualifying offer owed to Timo Meier by filing for club arbitration but it put some pressure on them to get a long-term deal done before the hearings came around.  They did just that, signing the winger to an eight-year deal that carries an $8.8MM AAV, making him the highest-paid forward on the team.  Meier reached the 40-goal mark for the first time in his career last season with New Jersey making a big move to acquire him at the deadline.  They have found a way to fit in max-term deals for both Meier and Jesper Bratt now while they also quietly picked up Tyler Toffoli from Calgary to give them more firepower for next season.

Free Agent Frenzy: Buoyed by the addition of more than 100 players to the open market after a busy non-tender deadline, July 1st represented a very busy day on the NHL calendar with more than $650MM in contract commitments to 166 players.  The biggest signings by position in terms of AAV were the Hurricanes picking up Dmitry Orlov on a two-year deal with a $7.75MM price tag, a sizable overpayment in money to get a short-term agreement that better fits their pay structure.  Up front, Alex Killorn wasn’t able to work a deal out with Tampa Bay, instead landing a four-year pact worth $6.25MM per season with Anaheim, a surprise day-one spender.  Meanwhile, in goal, the biggest contract given to a UFA was Pittsburgh re-signing Tristan Jarry to a five-year agreement that carries a $5.375MM AAV, one of three contracts handed to goalies that saw NHL action last season.

Islander Spending Spree: The biggest contract of the first day of the new league year came from the Islanders who handed goaltender Ilya Sorokin an eight-year, $66MM extension that will begin in the 2024-25 season.  The 27-year-old has been nothing short of stellar since coming to the NHL in 2020-21, posting a 2.34 GAA with a .924 SV% and 16 shutouts in his first three seasons.  His deal ensures that the Islanders will have top-level goaltending for the long haul.  They also brought back veteran Semyon Varlamov on a four-year, $11MM agreement to serve as Sorokin’s backup.  The 35-year-old was one of the better options on the open market although few expected him to get four years.  Few also expected GM Lou Lamoriello to hand out a pair of seven-year contracts to keep Pierre Engvall ($3MM AAV) and Scott Mayfield ($3.5MM AAV) in the fold.  Both players are quality role pieces but it’s fair to say there’s some sticker shock on the length of those contracts.  All told, nearly 19% of the $650MM in commitments from Saturday came from the Isles.

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With the draft and free agency almost upon us, activity around the league has started to pick up with an expectation of plenty more to come, including resolutions to trades that are reportedly in the works.  Here’s a rundown of the top stories from the past seven days.

Middlemen Off The Market: This isn’t the greatest free agent crop for centers and the crop got considerably thinner over the past week with four players coming off the market.  First, Montreal re-signed Sean Monahan to a one-year contract that’s worth $2MM if he meets his games played bonus, giving the veteran a chance to prove he has recovered from his injuries this past season.  Then it was Buffalo’s turn as they inked long-time Sabre Zemgus Girgensons to a one-year, $2.5MM deal to keep him as a fixture in their bottom six.  Erik Haula made it known that he wanted to remain with New Jersey and he got his wish, signing a three-year contract that carries a $3.15MM AAV.  Then, following reports that contract talks were stalling out, Carolina and Jordan Staal were able to reach a new four-year contract, one that carries an AAV of $2.9MM and has a full no-move clause for the first three seasons.

Coyotes Make Moves: In recent years, the Coyotes have willingly taken on unwanted contracts in exchange for future assets with those players either staying on the roster or landing on injured reserve.  Now, the team is changing course as they’ve parted ways with a pair of those unwanted deals, buying out defenseman Patrik Nemeth and winger Zack Kassian.  The moves result in $1.833MM in dead cap for next season and $1.983MM in 2024-25.  Then, Arizona opted to trade away one of their surplus selections, sending Montreal’s 2024 second-round pick to Los Angeles to acquire defenseman Sean Durzi.  The 24-year-old had 38 points in his sophomore year for the Kings and could be part of the back end for the Coyotes for several years.  After that, they re-upped goaltender Connor Ingram to a new three-year deal with a cap hit of $1.95MM.  In 17 appearances in 2023, the 26-year-old put up a .922 SV% and if he can stay even close to that level, it could wind up being a club-friendly deal.

Johansen To Colorado: The Avalanche decided to get a head start on their center shopping as they acquired Ryan Johansen from Nashville in exchange for the rights to pending UFA forward Alex Galchenyuk.  As part of the move, the Predators are retaining half of Johansen’s $8MM for the final two seasons of his contract.  The 30-year-old is coming off a down season that saw him put up just 28 points in 55 games before missing the last couple of months after undergoing emergency leg surgery.  However, he’s just a year removed from a 63-point campaign so Colorado is hoping that a change of scenery could give him a spark.  In a move that basically amounts to acquiring him for future considerations, it’s certainly a worthwhile chance to take for them while Nashville settles for simply clearing half of his contract off their books.

Hall Of Famers: Away from the rink, the next group of Hockey Hall of Famers was announced.  A total of seven people will enter the Hall next season, including builders Ken Hitchcock and Pierre Lacroix (posthumously), goaltenders Mike Vernon, Tom Barrasso, and Henrik Lundqvist, plus forwards Pierre Turgeon and Caroline Ouellette.  Of the seven inductees, only Lundqvist was named in his first year of eligibility.  Meanwhile, it’s the second Hall of Fame honor of the year for Ouellette who was also named to the IIHF Hall of Fame earlier this year.

Departures In Calgary? Last week, there was a belief that defenseman Noah Hanifin would be on the way out in Calgary.  He might not be the only one.  First, reports emerged that center Elias Lindholm hasn’t accepted a long-term extension offer from the Flames while fellow middleman Mikael Backlund may also be leaning toward leaving the team.  Then, another report suggested that Tyler Toffoli isn’t likely to re-sign either.  All four players are eligible for unrestricted free agency next summer but if they’re not willing to stick around, GM Craig Conroy could be busy in the coming days and weeks by sending those players to teams that they might be willing to ink new deals with.

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The curtain has closed on the 2022-23 season with Vegas taking home its first Stanley Cup, beating Florida in five games.  (The Panthers, as it turns out, had several key injuries to contend with, some of which will carry over into next season.)  Away from the rink, there was plenty of notable news, recapped in our key stories.

Coaching Hires: The final two vacancies behind the bench have been filled.  After going internal for their GM hire, Calgary did the same for the head coaching position, promoting assistant Ryan Huska to the top job, replacing Darryl Sutter.  Huska is no stranger to the organization having been an assistant with them for five years after serving as their AHL head coach for the four previous years.  This will be his first head coaching position in the NHL.  The same can’t be said for the new coach of the Rangers with them hiring veteran Peter Laviolette as their new bench boss, taking over from Gerard Gallant.  The 58-year-old spent the last three seasons with Washington before parting ways back in April.  This will be his 22nd season behind the bench and he will crack the top ten for games coached in NHL history sometime in November.

Max-Term Deal For Bratt: After inking a pair of short-term deals after his entry-level contract expired, the Devils and winger Jesper Bratt put pen to paper on an eight-year, $63MM contract.  The 24-year-old followed up his breakout 73-point campaign in 2021-22 with another 73-point effort this past season including a career-best 32 goals, solidifying himself as a key cog on New Jersey’s top line in the process.  With one key RFA locked up, GM Tom Fitzgerald can turn his focus to his other one, winger Timo Meier.  The team chose to file for club-elected salary arbitration, giving them a chance to submit an offer that’s $1.5MM below what would have been his $10MM qualifier.  That will give both sides about six weeks to try to work out a long-term agreement before the hearings end in early August.

First Buyout Done: The buyout window opened up on Friday and Vancouver wasted little time making the first move, buying out the final four seasons of Oliver Ekman-Larsson’s contract.  The move frees up more than $7MM in cap room for the Canucks this season but does put more than $20MM in dead cap on their books over the next eight years.  That’s hardly the outcome then-GM Jim Benning was hoping for when he acquired the 31-year-old at the draft two years ago, moving the ninth-overall pick as part of the package.  Meanwhile, as Arizona retained salary in the trade, they too have a dead cap charge over the next eight years totaling $2.8MM.  Notably, one of their three retained salary slots will be encumbered for that entire stretch, running through the 2030-31 campaign.  Ekman-Larsson becomes an unrestricted free agent but will not be able to sign with his new team until July 1st.

Senators Sold: After a very long and drawn-out process, the Senators will have a new owner as it was announced that Michael Andlauer was the successful bidder for the team with an offer of $950MM.  The purchase is subject to the approval of the Board of Governors but that shouldn’t be an issue, especially with Andlauer being familiar to them as an alternate governor with Montreal.  Andlauer will need to sell his minority stake in the Canadiens before the sale can be finalized.  He won’t officially take over the franchise until these things occur so it’s unlikely he’ll be able to have any sort of impact regarding off-ice (or on-ice) personnel for a little while yet.

Speaking of on-ice personnel, the Senators also filed for club-elected arbitration on pending RFA Alex DeBrincat, allowing them to offer as low as 85% of his $9MM qualifying offer.  However, unlike Meier, there’s a belief that DeBrincat would like to be moved and this filing won’t prevent that process from playing out.

Leaving Calgary? Flames defenseman Noah Hanifin is entering the final year of a six-year, $29.7MM contract that has been quite a bargain for Calgary.  However, it appears that he’ll be following in the footsteps of former teammate Matthew Tkachuk as he has reportedly told the team that he does not want to sign a new deal with them.  As a result, it’s expected that he’ll be traded.  The 26-year-old has found his offensive touch the last two years, picking up 86 points in 182 games while logging nearly 22 minutes a night.  He’ll be 27 when his new contract begins which means, wherever he goes, he’ll be in line for a max-term extension that’s worth at least a couple million more than his current $4.95MM AAV.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.