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Free Agent Notes: Guentzel, Stamkos, Tanev, Johnson

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Winger Jake Guentzel is set to be one of the top players in this year’s UFA class.  The Hurricanes haven’t given up on trying to re-sign the veteran, per The Fourth Period’s David Pagnotta (Twitter link) who adds that the Kings and Red Wings are among the teams that are expected to show interest should the 29-year-old make it to the open market.  Guentzel split the season between Pittsburgh and Carolina, who made him their big addition at the trade deadline.  He’s coming off his third-straight 30-goal campaign and has averaged over a point per game in four of the last five years.  Guentzel also had a good playoff showing, notching nine points in 11 contests, and is just below a point per game for his postseason career.  That certainly has him well-positioned to earn a significant raise on the $6MM he has been making since 2019-20.

Other news on the free agent front:

  • Discussions are ongoing between the Lightning and captain Steven Stamkos, Pagnotta relays (Twitter link). Stamkos made it known going back to training camp in the fall that he wasn’t pleased that a new deal wasn’t in place with the team preferring to let the season play out.  His frustration didn’t show in his play, however, as he put up 40 goals and 41 assists in 79 games, surpassing the point-per-game threshold for the seventh time in eight years.  While the 34-year-old will one day slow down, it looks like he has several good years still to come, meaning he’ll have a strong market should he actually get to free agency on Monday.
  • The Stars are continuing discussions with pending UFA blueliner Chris Tanev, relays Pierre LeBrun of TSN and The Athletic (Twitter link). The 34-year-old proved to be a strong pickup at the trade deadline, helping to anchor their back end through a run to the Western Conference Final.  Tanev finished the season with 19 points and a career-best 207 blocks in 75 games between Calgary and Dallas and will have strong interest next week; LeBrun puts the Maple Leafs as one of his likely suitors.
  • Blackhawks RFA Reese Johnson is not expected to receive a qualifying offer, his agent Michael O’Rafferty told Scott Powers and Mark Lazerus of The Athletic (subscription link). The 25-year-old was limited to just 42 games this season while also dealing with a concussion.  Johnson had five points and 109 hits in those appearances while averaging a little less than 11 minutes a night.  His qualifying offer comes in at just under $900K with arbitration rights but it appears Chicago will let someone else get a chance on their fourth line.

Free Agent Focus: Columbus Blue Jackets

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Free agency is now less than a week away and teams are looking ahead to when it opens.  There will be several impact players set to hit the open market in July while many teams have key restricted free agents to re-sign as well.  We continue our look around the NHL with an overview of the free agent situation for the Blue Jackets.

Key Restricted Free Agents

D Jake Bean – A couple of years ago, the Blue Jackets made a move for Bean with the hope that he could become a longer-term option on the back end.  His first season went well before injuries were a significant issue in 2022-23.  This season, Bean was able to stay healthy but struggled while remaining limited in a third-pairing role.  At 26 with nearly 200 career NHL games under his belt, there is definitely a role for him on an NHL roster.  However, is he worth $2.8MM and granting him arbitration rights?  This is the decision that GM Don Waddell has to weigh.  If you’re wondering which way he might be leaning, remember that Waddell was the GM who moved him to Columbus in the first place.

F Kent Johnson – After a strong showing in his first full NHL campaign in 2022-23 that saw him put up 40 points in 79 games, expectations were high for the 2021 fifth-overall pick heading into the season.  However, he wound up not making the team out of training camp and when he was recalled later on, offensive success was harder to come by.  To make matters worse, he suffered a torn labrum in late February, ending his season prematurely while also affecting his offseason training.  It’s safe to say that he’s heading for a bridge contract and as a 10.2 (c) player, the Blue Jackets don’t have to worry about any potential threat of an offer sheet as he’s not eligible for one.

F Kirill Marchenko – The Blue Jackets haven’t had much success in the goal-scoring department in recent years but Marchenko is one of the exceptions.  The 23-year-old scored 21 goals in 59 games in his rookie year and followed it up with a 23-goal effort in 2023-24.  If Waddell is inclined to hand out a long-term agreement this summer, Marchenko is probably the candidate to receive it.  Otherwise, he could also be heading for a bridge deal.  Since he has arbitration rights, there’s a good chance that the agreement will push past the $3MM mark.

F Cole Sillinger – After a sophomore year to forget, Sillinger had a good bounce-back campaign, getting back around the numbers he had in his rookie year, notching 13 goals and 19 assists while improving at the faceoff dot and taking a regular turn on the penalty kill.  While it’s not the numbers they were hoping for from the 2021 first-rounder, Sillinger at least appears to be back on the upswing.  Once again, a short-term second contract is expected, one that should surpass $2MM per season.

F Alexandre Texier – After spending 2022-23 in Switzerland and having his contract tolled, Texier returned to Columbus and put up a career-best 30 points albeit with a lower point-per-game rate than in 2021-22.  There have been times when he has looked like a capable top-six piece but he hasn’t been able to play at that level consistently enough to stay there.  Accordingly, another short-term agreement is likely heading his way though he should get a raise from his $1.75MM salary which also serves as his qualifying offer.

Other RFAs: F Tyler Angle, D Marcus Bjork, D Jake Christiansen, G Jet Greaves, F Alexander Nylander

Key Unrestricted Free Agents

D Nick Blankenburg – It’s a pretty thin crop of pending unrestricted free agents which isn’t much of a surprise for a rebuilding team.  Blankenburg isn’t even a typical UFA as he qualifies as a Group Six free agent as a player who is 25 or older, has at least three professional seasons, and less than 80 NHL appearances.  Blankenburg was a full-timer on the NHL roster in 2022-23 but spent the bulk of this season in the minors where he also battled injury trouble.  Still, as someone who has had a bit of success at the top level (18 points in 55 games while logging over 18 minutes a night on average) and being a right-shot defenseman, Blankenburg should have fairly strong interest on the open market.

D Jakub Zboril – Zboril didn’t see any NHL action in 2023-24, instead splitting time between the AHL affiliates for Boston and Columbus.  Part of that could be attributable to the seven-figure cap hit he had, something that shouldn’t be the case next season.  The 27-year-old has 76 career NHL games under his belt and should have interest on two-way offers.  However, if he feels that the AHL is his likeliest destination, it’s also possible that he will consider his options overseas.

Other UFAs: F Joshua Dunne, F Brendan Gaunce, F Carson Meyer, G Malcolm Subban, D Billy Sweezey

Projected Cap Space

Cap space won’t be an issue for the Blue Jackets this summer as they enter the offseason with $21.675MM in spending room.  None of their pending restricted free agents are poised to command a pricey contract although there are enough of them to put a dent into that figure.  Nonetheless, there is enough room for them to try to make a splash this summer if Waddell wants to put his stamp on his new team early.

Photos courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.  Cap information courtesy of CapFriendly.

Rangers Looking To Move Up In The Draft

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By virtue of winning the Presidents’ Trophy and falling in the Eastern Conference Final, the Rangers will be waiting a while to make their first selection in the opening round of the draft on Friday as they hold the 30th overall selection.  However, it appears they’re looking to make a selection earlier than that as Larry Brooks of the New York Post reports that GM Chris Drury is looking to package that pick along with winger Kaapo Kakko to move up in the draft order.

Earlier this month, Kakko accepted what would have been his qualifying offer this weekend, inking a one-year, $2.4MM agreement.  But if anything, instead of the contract quashing any trade speculation, it has had the opposite effect as many have suggested that the new deal actually helps his trade value as now teams have certainty as to what the 23-year-old will cost.

Kakko was the second-overall pick back in 2019 after a very strong season in Finland’s top league and it looked like New York had a future core winger on their hands with the potential for more.  However, while there have been signs of that potential over his first five NHL seasons, he hasn’t been able to show it consistently.

In 2022-23, Kakko had what looked like a possible breakout campaign, notching 18 goals and 22 assists.  Those numbers don’t jump off the page for a fourth-year player but they were career bests and both sides were hoping he’d be able to build off that.  But it didn’t happen.  Instead, Kakko struggled this year, notching 13 goals and six assists in 61 games while seeing his playing time dip to a career-low 13:17 per night.  It went even lower in the playoffs as he was just over a dozen minutes per game while recording just one goal and one assist in 15 appearances.

On the one hand, you have Kakko’s recent performance which wasn’t the greatest.  On the other hand, here’s a still-young player who other teams might feel that a new team and system could help get him back on track.  The Rangers will clearly be hoping that particular perception will help them move up the draft board on Friday.

Todd McLellan Believed To Be The Contender For Blue Jackets Coaching Vacancy

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With the draft coming up later this week and free agency beginning soon after, the Blue Jackets will likely want to fill their head coaching vacancy before then.  To that end, ESPN’s John Buccigross reports (Twitter link) that a decision is expected soon while Todd McLellan is gaining traction to be their next bench boss.

McLellan would certainly represent an experienced option taking over from Pascal Vincent who was in his first year running the bench this past season.  In their search for a new GM, the Blue Jackets were placing a lot of emphasis on experience and it appears Don Waddell is placing a similar emphasis on that with his coaching hire.

The 56-year-old started 2023-24 with Los Angeles where he was in his fifth season with the team.  However, they struggled through the first half of the year, resulting in his being dismissed in early February with assistant Jim Hiller taking over on an interim tag (which was later lifted in the spring).

McLellan also has long coaching stints under his belt with San Jose and Edmonton.  All told, he has been behind the bench for 1,144 games, 24th-most in NHL history.  He hasn’t had a lot of playoff success over that stretch with his teams playing to a 42-46 record over nine postseason appearances.

Of course, playoff success shouldn’t be on the mind of Waddell, at least in the short term.  The Blue Jackets have missed the postseason in four straight years and have finished at the basement of the Metropolitan for two straight years.  With a particularly young core group, the focus in the near future will be making the most of player development and trying to get Columbus to be more competitive.

With that in mind, McLellan could very well be the right fit to help lead the Blue Jackets through their rebuild and ideally towards trying to push for a playoff spot.  Whether it’s him or someone else, a decision on their next head coach should be coming soon.

Offseason Checklist: Edmonton Oilers

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After this year’s Stanley Cup champion was crowned, the offseason has arrived for everyone. It’s time to examine what teams will need to accomplish over the coming months. Next up is a look at the Oilers.

A horrid 3-9-1 start to the season had the Oilers in dangerous territory in November, leading them to be the first team to make an in-season coaching change. They were raucous after replacing Jay Woodcroft with Kris Knoblauch behind the bench, rebounding to go 46-18-5 the rest of the way and finishing second in the Pacific Division with 104 points. Their star-studded roster got within one goal of their first Stanley Cup since 1990 but ultimately fell short in an incredible 2024 Stanley Cup Final that saw them erase a 3-0 series deficit to force a Game 7. Now, the focus quickly turns to next season, with the draft and free agency less than a week away.

Find Holland’s Successor

The 2024 NHL Draft is in just three days, but the Oilers won’t have a full-time general manager at the table, it seems. Ken Holland’s contract is up and he won’t be returning in the role next season, as he’s headed for something between pseudo-retirement and full retirement. There’s a sense Holland may still remain affiliated with Edmonton in 2024-25, but it won’t be as GM, TSN’s Darren Dreger reports.

That leaves Edmonton with some choices to make, both short-term and long-term. In terms of who will run the draft on Friday night and Saturday morning, that’ll likely fall on the shoulders of assistant GMs Keith Gretzky, Brad Holland and Bill Scott. Director of Amateur Scouting Bill Pracey and Chief Amateur Scout Bob Green will also likely have more increased responsibility than normal. One thing is for sure, though – Ken Holland won’t be on the floor in his former capacity.

They haven’t been linked to any external GM candidates yet, but they’ll need to conduct a search. Brad Holland, who holds a director of professional scouting specification under his AGM title, seems to be the likeliest candidate to take over as the de facto interim GM when free agency begins if Edmonton doesn’t name a permanent replacement in the next week.

Draisaitl Extension Talks

German superstar Leon Draisaitl has more than solidified himself as a top-five forward in the league, giving the Oilers a one-two punch down the middle only rivaled by the prime of the Penguins’ Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin in recent memory. He’s done so on an absolute steal of an $8.5MM cap hit that’s served them well over the last seven seasons, but he’s now hurtling toward unrestricted free agency in 2025 and will require a hefty raise.

It doesn’t help that his deal is expiring at a time when the salary cap is seeing hefty 5% raises annually, and the top end of skater contracts is seemingly moving north every summer. As Chris Johnston pointed out in his latest for The Athletic, Draisaitl is surely in line to at least match or exceed the $13.25MM cap hit that’s kicking in for Leafs star Auston Matthews next season. That would at least temporarily have him eclipse Connor McDavid as Edmonton’s highest-paid player. Is that something the organization is comfortable with?

We’ll find out soon enough. If Draisaitl signs an extension for the same cap hit percentage as Matthews, 15.87%, that would work out to $13.97MM per season with an $88MM upper limit. Evolving Hockey has a slightly more conservative extension projection for Draisaitl at eight years with a $13.54MM cap hit. It would still give him the largest cap hit in the league for a brief period of time – he’d surely be eclipsed by McDavid when his deal runs out in 2026.

Getting cost certainty on Draisaitl long-term is necessary for the Oilers’ planning this summer as they look to make commitments in free agency and offload some bloated deals. They’re likely not very comfortable with extension discussions drawing out into the season, either – letting him potentially walk for nothing next summer isn’t something they’re even entertaining, per Johnston.

Replenish Scoring Depth

The Oilers have a bevy of forwards who were regulars in postseason play hitting free agency this summer, headlined by 20-goal man Warren Foegele and trade deadline pickup Adam Henrique. Their penalty-killing duo of Connor Brown and Mattias Janmark, who had a strong playoff and an incredible breakthrough Cup Final against Florida, are also both up.

As it stands, four forwards who spent most or all of last season in the AHL (Xavier Bourgault, James Hamblin, Raphael Lavoie, Lane Pederson) are slated for their 2024-25 opening night lineup if they don’t sign any UFAs. That’s not a realistic scenario. Anyone who can be had for a relatively affordable price will likely brought back – after all, their scoring behind McDavid, Draisaitl, Zach Hyman and company was strong enough to get them oh-so-close to a championship. Foegele especially was a crucial depth piece throughout the season, not just the playoffs, with his career-high 41 points.

But with only just over $10MM in projected cap space with nine open roster spots, that’s going to be an extremely tough ask. Money will need to be moved out no matter who they retain, which brings us to our next point…

Offload Campbell

Ridding themselves of or significantly reducing Jack Campbell’s $5MM cap hit is a much higher priority for Edmonton than its fourth-item placing in this article indicates. He’s taking up nearly 6% of their cap space and still costs $3.85MM when buried in the minors. While he did have a strong campaign in AHL Bakersfield, posting a .918 SV% in 33 games, the uncertainty of what you’re getting from him if you promote him back to the NHL is simply too great to stomach for a championship-caliber, cap-strapped team like Edmonton.

Whether that’s a trade or a buyout remains to be seen. He does have some trade protection, but a 10-team no-trade list isn’t absurdly difficult to deal with. A buyout would reduce his cap hit to $1.1MM next season, saving them $2.75MM in cap space compared to burying him in the minors. That’s enough for a pair of serviceable depth scorers in free agency.

Campbell had a .873 SV% in five NHL appearances to begin the season before being waived and sent to Bakersfield, where he spent the rest of the campaign. They would still need to find a backup for Stuart Skinner if they buy Campbell out or move him, but that can be done for a league-minimum contract (or close to it).

Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.

Stars, Oskar Bäck Agree To Two-Way Deal

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The Stars have agreed to a one-year, two-way deal with center/right wing Oskar Bäck, per a team release. It carries a $775K cap hit and pays him $120K in the minors with a $135K guarantee, PuckPedia reports. He’ll return for his fourth season in the Dallas organization after wrapping up his entry-level contract this year.

Dallas is the only NHL home Bäck has known. The Stars picked up the Swedish forward in the third round of the 2018 draft, signing him to an entry-level contract three years later. He played out the entirety of the deal with the AHL’s Texas Stars, where he’s put up 88 points (19 goals, 69 assists) in 196 games.

2023-24 was a high point for Bäck, who recorded career highs with 29 assists and 36 points despite making only 59 appearances, his fewest since joining the AHL club. He’s a good-skating pivot with NHL size at 6’2″ and 205 lbs, but his lack of goal-scoring ability means he’s yet to receive an NHL call-up. The Karlstad, Sweden native is a skilled playmaker, though, and could be a depth NHL option at some point in the right situation.

Given he’ll be 25 next summer, Bäck will almost certainly reach UFA status early as a Group VI free agent. He’ll have accumulated enough professional seasons to hit the open market early while playing fewer than 80 career NHL games. Therefore, it’s an important season for Bäck to try and at least earn a recall to earn another big-league opportunity in 2025-26 and avoid heading back to Europe.

The Stars are up to 33 out of a maximum 50 contracts signed for 2024-25 after re-upping Bäck, per CapFriendly.

2024 Hockey Hall Of Fame Inductees Announced

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Another slate of hockey legends has received their call to the Hall. Forwards Pavel Datsyuk, Jeremy Roenick, and defenseman Shea Weber comprise the NHL players entering this year. On the women’s side, former Team USA fixture and PWHL Minnesota general manager Natalie Darwitz has been inducted along with Team USA teammate and current Penguins amateur scout Krissy Wendell-Pohl. Longtime NHL vice president of hockey operations Colin Campbell has been inducted as a builder, as has longtime Capitals and Predators GM David Poile.

NHL all-time games played leader Patrick Marleau was eligible for induction for the first time this year but was not chosen. Meanwhile, Datsyuk and Weber gain entry on their first try, while Roenick gets in after a 12-year wait.

Datsyuk began his NHL career as a sixth-round pick of the Red Wings in 1998 out of the Russian top league. It took a while for him to come over, though, finally debuting with Detroit in his age-23 season in 2001-02. He put together a decent rookie season for the Dead Puck Era, logging 11 goals and 35 points in 70 games, finishing fourth in Calder Trophy voting before lifting the Stanley Cup as part of perhaps the best roster in NHL history. Datsyuk is the tenth player from that team to become a Hall of Famer, joining Chris Chelios, Sergei Fedorov, Dominik Hašek, Brett Hull, Igor Larionov, Nicklas Lidström, Luc Robitaille, Brendan Shanahan, and Steve Yzerman.

He went on to play 14 years in the show, all in a Red Wings uniform. Datsyuk lifted another Stanley Cup as part of the Red Wings’ championship team in 2008, a year that saw him post 97 points and a +41 rating in 82 games en route to his first of three straight Selke Trophies. He didn’t crack the 1,000-game mark, opting to return to his native Russia after the 2015-16 season, but still had 314 goals and 918 points in 953 career NHL games while arguably serving as the best defensive center of his time with some incredible breakaway/shootout moves to boot. He played five seasons in Russia’s Kontinental Hockey League after leaving Detroit, including three with top-flight side SKA St. Petersburg and two with his hometown Avtomobilist Yekaterinburg.

Datsyuk was also one of the most well-regarded and sportsmanlike players in the league, winning four Lady Byngs. He was named one of the NHL’s 100 greatest players of all time as part of the league’s centennial celebration in 2017-18.

Roenick may not have the awards résumé of a normal Hall-of-Famer, but he was still one of the league’s premier offensive talents over a career that spanned 20 seasons. The Boston native was the eighth overall pick of the Blackhawks in the 1988 draft and made his debut the following season, recording 18 points in 20 games without burning his rookie eligibility.

He arrived in full in 1989-90, posting 26 goals and 66 points in 78 games while earning himself a nomination for the Calder Trophy. That would be his last year without recording at least a point per game until 1997. Over 1,363 games with Chicago, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Phoenix and San Jose, he tallied 513 goals and 703 assists for 1,216 points while playing through one of the league’s lowest-scoring eras. On the league’s all-time list, Roenick ranks 42nd in goals, 59th in assists, 47th in points, and 54th in games played.

Weber spent his entire career with just two teams, playing 11 seasons with the Predators before a 2016 blockbuster trade for P.K. Subban sent him to the Canadiens for the final five years of his career. The Habs were hoping he’d be with them longer—he’s still under contract for two more seasons, now with Utah—but various injuries ended his days as a player after he captained Montreal to the Stanley Cup Final in 2021.

In his 1,038 career games, he tallied 589 points, including 224 goals and 365 assists. He never won the Norris Trophy but was a finalist for the award on three occasions with Nashville (2011, 2012, 2014). He made four year-end All-Star teams and took home the Mark Messier Leadership Award in 2016. He consistently logged heavy minutes throughout his career, averaging 24:03 per game.

Darwitz and Wendell-Pohl also take their rightful places in the Hall as they continue to make headway in recognizing the greats of the women’s game. Darwitz, now 40, is one of the most decorated Americans of all time, winning eight World Championship medals (three gold, five silver), three Olympic medals (two silver, one bronze), and multiple other international honors. Her junior season with the University of Minnesota in 2004-05 was one of the best performances in college hockey ever, racking up 42 goals and 114 points in just 40 games. After her playing career wrapped up in 2010, she spent various years coaching before taking over as GM of PWHL Minnesota in their inaugural season, building this year’s Walter Cup-winning team.

Wendell-Pohl, a Minnesota native like Darwitz, was also a member of the 2002 and 2006 Olympic teams for the US and served as their captain at her final World Championship appearance in 2007. She was unstoppable in Worlds action, totaling 21 goals and 59 points in 29 games over six appearances at the tournament. She’s been with the Penguins as a scout for three years.

Images courtesy of USA Today Sports.

Sharks Acquire Jake Walman

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The Sharks have acquired defenseman Jake Walman from the Red Wings and the Lightning’s second-round pick in this week’s draft (53rd overall). Detroit will receive nothing in return aside from future considerations, signaling this as a cap dump for a bigger move from general manager Steve Yzerman.

The Red Wings acquired the second-round pick they’re sending to San Jose in a trade with the Predators earlier today, in which they swapped defense prospect Andrew Gibson for the signing rights to winger Jesse Kiiskinen.

Unlike most deals involving future considerations, this swap doesn’t involve a decidedly overpriced contract. Walman, who’s broken out as a serviceable top-four defender since arriving in Detroit in 2022, costs $3.4MM against the cap through 2025-26. That’s about what his market value would be if he were to reach free agency this summer, if not under it.

That makes this arguably the best trade in general manager Mike Grier’s tenure at the helm of the Sharks, purely from a value standpoint. Walman will immediately challenge Mario Ferraro for top-pairing minutes in the Bay Area, although he hasn’t been much of a special teams option in Detroit. He averaged just under 20 minutes per game the past two seasons despite spending most of his time on their first pairing alongside Moritz Seider.

Injuries limited Walman to 63 games this season, but they didn’t stop him from recording a career-high 12 goals and 21 points. He and Seider had some of the most difficult minutes in the league, though, which correspondingly tanked his possession numbers. After controlling 50.1% of shot attempts and 54.8% of expected goals when on the ice at even strength in 2022-23, Walman controlled only 45.3% of shot attempts and 41% of expected goals this year, per Hockey Reference.

The 28-year-old Walman adds some much-needed depth to a paper-thin San Jose blue line that got even thinner yesterday with the news that they won’t be qualifying power-play specialist Calen Addison. He’s the sixth Sharks defenseman signed to a one-way deal next season, joining Ferraro, Kyle Burroughs, Nikolai Knyzhov, Jan Rutta and Marc-Édouard Vlasic. Ty Emberson and Henry Thrun are pending RFAs but are expected back in the picture next season.

The Wings do increase their projected cap space next season to $32.77MM with the move, but they lose a quality minute-munching piece of their roster in the process. After remaining in the playoff race until the final days of the regular season, it’s clear Yzerman is moving money around to add impact pieces this summer to push them over the hump. He’s also gearing up to offer rich extensions to Seider and Lucas Raymond, both of whom are slated to become RFAs next week.

Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.

Red Wings Trade Andrew Gibson To Predators

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The Red Wings have sent defense prospect Andrew Gibson to the Predators in exchange for the signing rights to right winger Jesse Kiiskinen and a second-round pick (53rd overall) in this week’s draft, according to a team announcement. Both players were selected by their respective clubs less than one year ago in the 2023 NHL Draft.

Gibson, 19, spent this season on loan to his junior team, the Soo Greyhounds of the Ontario Hockey League. There, he scored 12 goals and 32 assists for 44 points in 68 games with a +36 rating, all of which were significant steps forward from last season.

It’s rare to see teams move on from prospects this early in their development, especially after going so far as to sign them to an entry-level contract. Detroit inked the Ontario native to his ELC less than two months ago. But the 6’3″ right-shot defender risked being lost in the shuffle behind a deep group of up-and-coming defensemen in Hockeytown that includes 2021 sixth-overall pick Simon Edvinsson, Swedish compatriots Albert Johansson and William Wallinder, as well as 2023 first-rounder Axel Sandin-Pellikka. Despite being an early second-round choice last year at 42nd overall, he was already becoming expendable in Detroit’s prospect pool.

He’ll be a good fit in a Preds system that lacks any real impact prospects on the back end. In fact, Gibson immediately becomes the second-highest-drafted defender in Nashville’s pool, trailing 2023 first-round choice Tanner Molendyk.

In return, Detroit picks up Kiiskinen, who helps add depth to a thinning pool of wing prospects. Selected 26 picks after Gibson last year, the skilled Finn spent most of last season in the top-level Liiga with Pelicans, where he had four goals and six assists for 10 points in 38 games. When he wasn’t logging minutes in the pros, he was beyond electric when on assignment to their U-20 club, where he had 14 goals and 21 points in only eight games.

He has not yet signed his entry-level deal, which the Wings must do before June 1, 2027, to avoid losing his signing rights. Kiiskinen will turn 19 in August and is expected to remain in Finland next season, albeit with a new team. He transferred to HPK last month, signing a two-year deal.

With Kiiskinen being the slightly lower-valued prospect, Detroit recoups a second-round pick that nearly splits the difference between the two players’ draft spots. As it stands, it’s their second pick of the second round – they still have their own pick – and brings their total number of selections later this week to nine.

Utah Re-Signs Vladislav Kolyachonok To Two-Year Deal

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The Utah Hockey Club and left-shot defender Vladislav Kolyachonok have agreed to a two-year contract, per a team release. Financial terms weren’t disclosed. Per PuckPedia, it’s a two-way deal in 2024-25 before converting to a one-way agreement in 2025-26. It carries a cap hit of $775K and will pay him a $125K AHL salary next season.

Kolyachonok, 23, split the 2023-24 season between the Coyotes – who picked him up in a trade with the Panthers in 2021 – and their AHL affiliate, the Tucson Roadrunners. He was strong in a four-game call-up near the end of the season, posting a goal and three assists in four games with a +5 rating in third-pairing minutes.

In 36 games on the farm with Tucson, Kolyachonok logged 11 points (eight goals, three assists) with 14 PIMs and a +2 rating. He went without a point and had a -3 rating in the Roadrunners’ brief appearance in the Calder Cup Playoffs, a two-game dispatching in the first round at the hands of the Calgary Wranglers.

Kolyachonok was drafted by the Panthers in the second round in 2019 from the OHL’s Flint Firebirds. He was coming off his first season in North America after spending most of his development in his native Belarus. His professional showings don’t indicate he’ll ever have particularly strong point totals at the highest level, but he does have the skating ability and overall awareness to prevent him from being an offensive liability. He’d managed two goals and seven points across 39 games for the Yotes over the past three seasons.

If Kolyachonok had reached restricted free agency next week, he wouldn’t have been eligible for arbitration. He’s only accumulated three of the four professional seasons required for eligibility since he signed his entry-level contract at 18. If he fails to bring his NHL games played total to 80 over the next two seasons, he could be eligible for Group VI UFA status when his deal is up in 2026. Otherwise, he’ll remain under Utah’s control as an RFA.

Notably, Kolyachonok is no longer waiver-exempt. If he doesn’t make Utah’s inaugural opening-night roster, they’ll need to expose him to the league’s other 31 teams on his way back to Tucson.

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