With the start of the regular season now just days away, activity across the NHL picked up over the past few days. Here’s a rundown of the biggest news of the past week.
Ducks Sign Two: There won’t be any in-season holdouts in Anaheim this year as the Ducks agreed to bridge deals with their two remaining restricted free agents. First, they inked center Trevor Zegras to a three-year pact which carries a cap hit of $5.75MM. He’s coming off a career-best year offensively with 65 points and is one of the young pillars up front for the Ducks. Both sides get more time to evaluate with this deal to see if Zegras can become a top-end producer. They took a similar approach with defenseman Jamie Drysdale, giving him a three-year deal with a $2.3MM AAV. Drysdale missed most of last season after suffering a torn labrum but showed plenty of promise before that, making a part of their very strong young blueline corps. Notably, the salary structure for both contracts is uniform, making it that their qualifying offers in 2026 will be the same as their cap hits.
Stepan Hangs Them Up: Veteran middleman Derek Stepan has decided to call it a career, announcing his retirement at the age of 33. In his prime, he was a capable second center who also brought some defensive value to the table. He had at least 44 points in each of his first eight NHL seasons, surpassing the 50-point mark in six of those. That helped Stepan play in over NHL games between the regular season and the playoffs, the bulk of which came with the Rangers who drafted him in the second round back in 2008.
Three For Hartman: After inking Mats Zuccarello and Marcus Foligno to extensions last week, the Wild took care of their other prominent pending unrestricted free agent, signing forward Ryan Hartman to a three-year, $12MM extension. The 29-year-old is entering his fifth season with Minnesota and has gone from more of a depth piece to a core part of their top six after putting up 65 points in 2021-22 and 37 more last year despite missing 23 games due to injuries. Along the way, he has shown himself to be capable of playing down the middle, helping to fill a big need on the depth chart. As long as he can produce at a second-line rate, this is a deal that should work out well for both sides.
Four For Kaliyev: Kings winger Arthur Kaliyev received a four-game suspension from the Department of Player Safety for his kneeing incident on Ducks forward Chase De Leo. The ban covered the final two games of the preseason and the first two games of the regular season, meaning that the 22-year-old won’t be eligible to suit up for Los Angeles until October 17th. Kaliyev was an effective secondary scorer last season, notching 28 points in 56 games. Meanwhile, De Leo will miss roughly the next eight weeks with a knee injury and will begin the year on season-opening injured reserve.
One More Year: Still with Los Angeles, Kings head coach Todd McLellan was heading into the final year of his contract. Teams don’t typically like to have their bench bosses in their ‘lame duck’ season so they worked out a one-year extension that keeps him under contract through 2024-25. The veteran has been behind the bench for 290 games with Los Angeles with his team posting a 141-115-34 record. However, the team hasn’t won a playoff series with him at the helm. This extension allows for any possible distraction to go away but it stands to reason that with the summer they had, simply making the postseason is no longer the bare minimum so even with a new deal in hand, the pressure will be on McLellan this year.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
“That helped Stepan play in over NHL games…”
Come on guys. Maybe a little proof reading before putting up your stories?