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Free Agent Rumors: Stamkos, Bennett, Verhaeghe, Stolarz, Ekman-Larsson, Grzelcyk, Martinez

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The Devils are in the market for a top-six forward today, and they may end up as one of the finalists for Lightning captain Steven Stamkos, per ESPN’s Kevin Weekes.

They’ll be one of many teams making Stamkos’ agent’s phone ring off the hook today. TSN’s Bob McKenzie also expects the Ducks, Hurricanes, Predators and Red Wings to make aggressive pushes for the future Hall-of-Fame forward.

A return to Tampa Bay is extremely unlikely for Stamkos, whose 555 career goals and 1,082 games played have all come in a Lightning uniform. They weren’t close to an extension as of last weekend, and their signing of top UFA left winger Jake Guentzel to a seven-year, $63MM deal this morning has all but completely boxed him out.

More from around the Eastern Conference amid an already busy morning:

  • The Panthers are working hard on extensions for forwards Sam Bennett and Carter Verhaeghe as they become eligible to sign at 11 a.m. CT today, sources tell David Pagnotta of The Fourth Period. They’ve already gotten one big piece of business done today by keeping Sam Reinhart away from the open market on an eight-year, $69MM deal, but Bennett and Verhaeghe are two crucial pieces of their top-six forward group that remain unsigned past next season. It’s unclear what these deals may look like, but Reinhart taking a considerable discount on market value to remain in South Florida is surely a good indicator that Panthers GM Bill Zito can get them locked into deals that won’t break the bank.
  • TSN’s Darren Dreger adds the Panthers are also trying to re-sign UFA netminder Anthony Stolarz, but they have some competition. The Blackhawks and Maple Leafs are also in the mix for the veteran’s services. While a career backup, he’s one of the best options on the market in a UFA class devoid of starters. He was electric when used in Florida last year, posting a .925 SV% and 2.03 GAA in 27 appearances.
  • After making Chris Tanev’s six-year deal official, expect the Leafs to add another veteran blue liner in Oliver Ekman-Larsson, Dreger says. OEL is coming off a Stanley Cup win in Florida after putting up 32 points in 80 regular-season games, averaging 18:24 per night. He’d likely anchor a third pairing in Toronto on the left side behind Morgan Rielly and Jake McCabe.
  • The Penguins are among the teams linked to defenseman Matt Grzelcyk, The Athletic’s Josh Yohe reports. Grzelcyk is likely on his way out of Boston after spending the entirety of his eight-year, 445-game career there. He had 11 points and a +13 rating in 63 games last season while logging 17:36 per night.
  • Alec Martinez could continue his NHL career with the Blackhawks on a one-year deal, per TSN’s Bob McKenzie. The three-time Cup winner fell down the Golden Knights’ depth chart last year, limited to 55 games due to injuries and healthy scratches. He still managed 17 points, though, his most offense in three years, but had a -2 rating while averaging 19:03 per game.

Ducks Sign Isac Lundestrom To One-Year Extension

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The Anaheim Ducks have signed winger Isac Lundestrom to a one-year, $1.5MM extension, per Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman (Twitter link).

Anaheim drafted Lundestrom 23rd-overall in the 2018 NHL Draft, taking him as part of what’s become a first-round to remember. He briefly returned to the SHL following his draft, before stepping into 15 games with the Ducks and 12 in the AHL in the year’s second half. That kicked off Lundestrom’s career in North American pros, though he wouldn’t earn an everyday role until the 2020-21 season when he tallied just nine points in 41 games. But with the everyday role came a bout of confidence, and Lundestrom would go on to score 16 goals and 29 points in 80 games in 2021-22.

But Lundestrom couldn’t maintain the growing scoring, falling back to just four goals and 14 points in 61 games last season. To make matters worse, he suffered a torn Achilles that required surgery last August, holding him out until January of this year. Lundestrom tallied five goals and 11 points in 46 games during the year’s second half, though his struggles were evident. He’ll now get a chance to work out of those struggles with a fully healthy season in 2024-25, though he’ll have to fight for his role among a crowded Anaheim bottom-six. He’ll be competing for a role with rookies Cutter Gauthier and Sam Colangelo, stout depth pieces like Ross Colton, and any potential free agents the Ducks choose to add. That could be a tall order – and one that Anaheim will be ready to judge when Lundestrom is eligible for a new deal next summer.

Anaheim, Toronto Swap 23rd And 31st Overall Picks

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The Anaheim Ducks have acquired the 23rd overall pick of the 2024 NHL Draft from the Toronto Maple Leafs for the 31st and 58th overall picks (X Link).

After making a surprise selection of Beckett Sennecke with the third overall selection, the Ducks used the 23rd overall pick to select defenseman Stian Solberg out of Vålerenga in Norway. Stolberg is a quality shutdown defenseman and represents one of the most physical defensemen in the draft. Not only does Solberg effectively shut down offensive pressure from opponents, he makes sure to punish them if they ever touch the puck.

In Vålerenga this season, Stolberg scored five goals and 15 points in 42 games while collecting 47 PIMs in the process. At the international level, Solberg scored one goal and one assist in five games during the 2024 World Junior Championships and added two goals and one assist over seven games for Team Norway in the 2024 World Championships.

In Toronto, the team moves back eight spots while adding some draft capital in the second round of the 2024 NHL Draft. Heading into this evening’s festivities, the Maple Leafs did not have a second-round pick as they had moved theirs to the St. Louis Blues in the deal that landed Ryan O’Reilly with the Maple Leafs. Without factoring in any other moves for Toronto, the Maple Leafs will now only be without choices in the third and sixth rounds of this weekend’s draft.

Ducks Select Beckett Sennecke Third Overall

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The Ducks have gone off the board at third overall, selecting forward Beckett Sennecke from the OHL’s Oshawa Generals. In the earliest surprise of the night, Sennecke was recently projected as the 10th overall selection in our 2024 NHL Mock Draft.

In Oshawa, Sennecke scored 27 goals and 68 points in 63 games while putting up another 10 goals and 22 points in 16 postseason games. Unfortunately, even with the efforts of Sennecke in the postseason, the Generals were swept by the London Knights in the 2024 OHL Finals. However, because of his strong play in the postseason, Sennecke was a very late riser in the 2024 NHL Draft.

Sennecke is similar to recent draft picks by the Ducks with his ability to play on both sides of the puck. He is a quality playmaker but has demonstrated a keen ability to steal the puck from opponents to control the game. Because of his play with the puck, Sennecke can pull opposing defenders to him while creating space for his teammates.

It was expected that Anaheim would draft for offense this year as their prospect cupboard on the blue line is already one of the best in the league. The team finished 30th in the league in offense while averaging 2.48 goals a game.

Daniel Winnik Announces Retirement

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Versatile forward Daniel Winnik has retired, as he announced on his personal X page this morning. A veteran of 11 NHL seasons, Winnik had a respectable journeyman career, suiting up for eight major league teams after being taken in the ninth round of the 2004 draft by the Coyotes. The 39-year-old last suited up in the NHL in 2018 before heading to Genève-Servette HC of the Swiss National League, where he’s spent the last six seasons.

“For the past 19 years, I have lived a dream, from signing my first contract with the Phoenix Coyotes to my last with Geneva Servette,” Winnik wrote in his announcement. “Some experiences I thought would only remain dreams became reality: being coached by Wayne Gretzky, playing for my hometown team, the Toronto Maple Leafs, and representing Canada at the Olympic Games.”

As expected for a late-round pick, Winnik took a few years to break into the NHL. But unexpectedly, he wasn’t a depth piece or a fringe player subject to endless recalls and reassignments. Instead, he immediately cemented himself as a full-time piece for Phoenix upon making his debut in 2007-08, making 79 appearances in his rookie season while contributing 11 goals and 26 points in 14:06 of ice time per game, a good portion of which came on the penalty kill. Winnik spent the first three years of his NHL career with the Coyotes, recording 52 points (18 goals, 34 assists) in 202 games before they traded him to the Avalanche for a fourth-round pick in the 2010 offseason.

In 2010-11, Winnik rediscovered his valuable depth-scoring contributions from his rookie season, matching his 11 goals and 26 points in 80 games for the Avs while averaging 16:33 per game, the most he’d played at that point in his career. He was also one of Colorado’s most-used forwards in shorthanded situations that season, averaging 2:44 per game while down a man. Unfortunately, he was slugging it out on an Avs team that finished with only 68 points, earning them the right to select future captain Gabriel Landeskog with the second-overall pick in that summer’s draft.

Winnik was dealt again to the Sharks midway through the 2011-12 season, beginning a run of playing for seven different teams in the final seven seasons of his NHL career, including two separate stints with the Maple Leafs. He would also end up logging action for the Capitals, Ducks, Penguins and Wild, although he only managed to play more than 150 games for one team, the Coyotes. His career-defining season was split between Toronto and Pittsburgh in 2014-15, recording a career-high 34 points (nine goals, 25 assists) in 79 games and a +23 rating, earning him a second- and fifth-place vote in Selke Trophy polling.

However, after completing a one-year, $660K contract with the Wild in 2017-18, which saw him produce six goals and 23 points in 81 games, there wasn’t much interest in his services stateside. That led him to head to Geneva, where he broke out immediately as one of the best two-way threats in the top-flight Swiss league. Over six seasons with the club, he recorded 91 goals and 234 points in 270 games, winning three major trophies – a Spengler Cup in 2020, an NL championship in 2023, and a Champions Hockey League title this season. He also represented Canada at the 2022 Winter Olympics, contributing a goal and an assist in five appearances.

Ultimately, Winnik ended his NHL career with 82 goals, 169 assists, 251 points and a +52 rating in 798 games. We all at PHR congratulate Winnik on such a lengthy stint in the pros, especially for a ninth-round pick.

Red Wings Have Reportedly Discussed John Gibson With Ducks

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Former Jennings Trophy winner John Gibson has been in trade talks on an annual basis for the past few summers, but the years-long saga may finally reach its conclusion in the coming days. The Ducks are ramping up their efforts to move the 30-year-old and have engaged in talks with the Red Wings and another unnamed team, David Pagnotta of The Fourth Period reports. Detroit is the first team to be firmly connected to Gibson this summer after Anaheim general manager Pat Verbeek acknowledged he was still drawing interest.

Gibson’s 2023-24 season was the worst of his career, continuing a long run of below-average play behind the rest of the Ducks’ rebuilding roster. He made 44 starts and two relief appearances without being significantly hampered by injuries, posting a .888 SV% and allowing 21.2 goals above average, per Hockey Reference.

He’s still carried the reputation of being one of the best up-and-coming netminders in the league in the mid-2010s, and there are many out there who believe he can get back to that level of play. Playing behind one of the most porous defenses in the league over the past five years certainly hasn’t helped his numbers. Even when accounting for the level of quality chances he’s faced, though, the stats aren’t promising. He hasn’t saved more goals than expected since the 2018-19 campaign, according to data from MoneyPuck.

For Anaheim, he’s been made expendable by the emergence of 24-year-old Lukáš Dostál. The 2018 third-round pick outplayed Gibson by every metric this season, posting a .902 SV% and 3.33 GAA with one shutout while making 38 starts and six relief appearances. He allowed 5.3 goals above expected compared to Gibson’s 9.6 over similar workloads, per MoneyPuck.

It’s not like Gibson would be arriving to a team known for its defensive responsibility in Detroit, either. While they had a competitive roster, losing out on their first playoff appearance since 2016 thanks to a regulation win tiebreaker with the Capitals, they were one of the worst teams in the league at controlling play at 5-on-5. They controlled only 46.5% of shot attempts, 45.2% of scoring chances and 43.0% of high-danger chances, according to Hockey Reference.

Goaltending is an area of need for the Wings, though. While Trey Augustine and Sebastian Cossa are both promising prospects long-term, they lack stability at the position entering next season. Gibson would give them a more established name to compete for starts with Ville Husso and Alex Lyon, who are both entering the final season of their contracts. But based on this year’s results, he wouldn’t be a significant upgrade. Lyon was quite serviceable, especially for his $900K cap hit, giving Detroit a solid .904 SV% through 44 appearances.

Any team acquiring Gibson is banking on a return to his 2015-2019 form, but he’ll likely need a strong defensive environment in front of him to make that a reality. If Detroit is intent on making a change to their crease next season, one of the less-established but lower-risk netminders available in free agency is a better bet. For a team on the cusp of playoff contention, adding three years of an uncertain Gibson at a $6.4MM cap hit is questionable.

Afternoon Notes: Clune, Devils, Kane, Holloway

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The Anaheim Ducks have hired former player Rich Clune as an assistant coach, shares Chris Johnston of The Athletic (Twitter link). Clune has spent the last two seasons as a development coach with the AHL’s Toronto Marlies, joining the team he once captained immediately following his 2022 retirement. Clune added a role behind the bench last season, and will now get a chance to do the same at the NHL level.

Clune was a career minor-league bruiser, who played in just two full NHL seasons as part of his 15-year career in North American pros. He scored a career-high nine points in 47 games during the 2012-13 season, swapping record stats in the following year with seven points and a career-high 166 penalty minutes in 58 games. Clune would go on to play just one more NHL game in his career, though he did total an impressive 593 career games in the AHL – recording 151 points and 1,607 penalty minutes.

Other notes from around the league:

  • The New Jersey Devils have signed a two-year extension with ECHL affiliate the Adirondack Thunder. The two teams have been partnered since 2017-18, following a brief connection between Adirondack and the Calgary Flames. The Thunder have only missed the playoffs once in their six-year connection with New Jersey, though they’ve failed to make it past Divisional finals.
  • The Edmonton Oilers could welcome winger Evander Kane back to the lineup on Friday, with head coach Kris Knoblauch designating him a game-time decision to Dan Rosen of NHL.com (Twitter link). Kane hasn’t played since Game 2 of the Stanley Cup Finals, and hasn’t scored since Game 5 against the Dallas Stars. In total he has just eight points in 20 games this postseason, though his aggression and grit will be a welcome boost over Dylan Holloway, who’d stand to lose his role should Kane step back in, shares Renauld Lavoie of TVA Sports (Twitter link).

Andrew Cogliano Announces Retirement

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2022 Stanley Cup champion Andrew Cogliano is retiring after a 17-year NHL career. The Avalanche announced the news regarding their pending free agent forward in an announcement Friday. He’ll stay in Denver in a wide-spanning player development and scouting role. Cogliano released the following statement through the team:

The game of hockey has given me and my family so much and I am grateful for every moment. I am blessed to have played for so long with some great organizations and amazing teammates. I will miss being with the guys in the dressing room and battling for each other on the ice every night but it’s time to move on. Thank you to everyone I ever played with, played for and all the great fans for all of their support. I am excited to start my new chapter in the front office.

An unlikely first-round pick of the Oilers back in 2005, Cogliano had a peculiar development path as one of the few first-round picks in recent memory to be drafted out of lower-level juniors. After racking up 102 points in 49 games with the OPJHL’s St. Michael’s Buzzers in his draft year, Cogliano walked away from Canadian juniors and embarked on a collegiate career with the University of Michigan, where he again dominated. He turned pro with Edmonton in 2007-08, playing in all 82 games during his rookie season – something that would quickly become a common theme.

That rookie season was a strong one for Cogliano, who finished ninth in Calder Trophy voting after racking up 45 points, a number that would end up standing as a career-high. Suiting up for Edmonton in the early days of their so-called ’Decade of Darkness,’ Cogliano quickly developed into a respected, versatile two-way skater who could play anywhere he was needed, skating on virtually every line and at every forward position. After four years, 146 points and 328 games of service for Edmonton, never missing a contest since making his NHL debut, he was dealt to the Ducks in the 2011 offseason in exchange for a second-round pick.

The offense never popped consistently for Cogliano in Anaheim, although he did notch his only 20-goal season in the 2013-14 campaign. Still, he remained an incredibly serviceable and adept two-way skater, routinely averaging between 14 and 16 minutes per game while contributing solid secondary scoring. Consistency remained perhaps his greatest asset – his career-opening ironman streak didn’t end until a suspension in the 2017-18 campaign, his 11th one in the NHL and his final full season with the Ducks.

Cogliano remained a strong utility forward with penalty-killing upside even as he aged, giving solid showings for the Stars, Sharks and finally Avalanche as he declined into a solely bottom-six role. Colorado acquired him for just a fifth-round pick from San Jose at the 2022 trade deadline, and he went on to contribute three goals and six points in 16 playoff games as he helped the Avs to their first Stanley Cup in nearly 20 years.

Now 37, Cogliano finishes his career with 1,294 games played, tied for 75th all-time. He tallied 190 goals, 274 assists, and 464 points with a +31 rating and 449 PIMs while averaging 14:06 per game. All of us at PHR extend our best wishes to Cogliano as he begins his front-office career.

Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.

Ducks Interested In Hiring Rich Clune As Assistant Coach

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  •  Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reported that the Anaheim Ducks are interested in hiring Rich Clune as an assistant coach for the 2024-25 NHL season. Clune has been serving in a similar role with the Toronto Marlies of the AHL after being promoted from his previous position as Development Coach of the Toronto Maple Leafs on November 29th. Nevertheless, there has been nothing indicating that Clune is interested in the position in Anaheim, as he spent the last seven years of his playing career with the Maple Leafs organization.

    [SOURCE LINK]

Ducks’ Trevor Zegras Offers Lucrative Trade Value

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The 2024 summer is gearing up to be dramatic, with Vezina Trophy goaltenders and young top scorers headlining a very active trade market. The Anaheim Ducks may be positioning themselves as the team of the summer amidst it all, as star Ducks forward and former top-10 pick Trevor Zegras is once again facing trade rumors. Trade speculation is nothing new for the former USNTDP standout, who faced plenty of uncertainty entering the season – missing both training camp and preseason action while holding our for a new contract. He ultimately settled on a three-year, $17.2MM bridge contract – though Zegras would regardless end up missing most of the season with a broken ankle. He returned from an 11-week absence in March and ultimately totaled 31 games on the year, scoring just 15 points. But despite the down year, Zegras’ age, scoring upside, and cheap contract offer rare and incredibly lucrative value on the trade market.

It seems Zegras’ scoring upside has been shrouded behind a down year this season – but there’s no doubting his place among the best young scorers in the league. Zegras posted an impressive 23 goals and 61 points in 75 games as a rookie in 2021-22 – being named the runner-up to Moritz Seider’s 2022 Calder Trophy. To boot, Zegras proved consistent in his sophomore year, managing 65 points and again scoring 23 goals in 81 games. Combined with his modest scoring this year, Zegras has totaled 55 goals and 154 points across his first 211 games. That equates to a 0.72 points-per-game pace, ranking Zegras among the most potent young scorers in the game, and situating him ahead of players like Seth Jarvis, Lucas Raymond, and Cole Caufield.

And unlike many young players, Zegras offers the flexibility play both center and winger at an NHL level, with Anaheim mentioning adapting Zegras to center as a key priority in his early development and time in the AHL. He was frequently used down the middle through his first two years in the NHL – though he posted a dismal 40.6 faceoff percentage. The arrival of Leo Carlsson this season was enough to bump Zegras back to the wing, where he struggled to work off the boards in a Ducks system built more on physicality than finesse. His struggles at the faceoff dot make him a hard sale as a full-time center, though his flexibility makes him a match for even more teams.

Zegras’ reputation may be unruly, but he’s been in elite scoring talent since breaking out with the NTDP’s notorious 2019 lineup. With so much consistency between his first two seasons, it seems much more likely that his down year was more the result of a shaky start to the year, marred by prolonged contracting negotiations and injury, than it was an indication that he’s fallen off course. At a spry 23, Zegras is just kicking off his career, already carving out a consistent top-six role and strong scoring pace before many players earn a daily lineup role at all. His offensive upside has vindicated Zegras’ draft spot – as he sits fourth among the 2019 class in NHL scoring – but it also makes him substantially harder to price on the trade market. There simply aren’t previous trades situated around a player as high-scoring or young as Zegras.

It, in a way, harkens back to Larry Murphy’s move from the Los Angeles Kings to the Washington Capitals in 1983. While the swap differs in a  lot of ways – Murphy most notably being a high scoring defenseman, and a player significantly closer to the league’s greatest at the time of his move. But there are plenty of similarities as well. Murphy also carried top-10 draft pedigree, vindicated by star scoring, and was moved before his 24th birthday. In that case, the Kings received stout top-four defenseman Brian Engblom and Ken Houston as he neared retirement. Zegras’ trade rumors are occurring over four decades later – so there’s like not much to be gleaned from Murphy’s move – though precedent could suggest that the Ducks may need to settle for impactful depth in any move featuring such a young star.

The Ducks will find much more present, and realistic, guidance in the trades of Martin Necas and Nikolaj Ehlers, two other potent scorers on the trade market – though Necas, the younger of the two, is still three years Zegras’ senior. Speculation around what the pair of wingers could fetch has been all over, with Carolina rumored to be interested in top prospects, though even a swap of the pair has been mentioned as a possibility. With Zegras under contract for the next two seasons, and expiring as a restricted free agent, Anaheim has plenty of time to wait and see how the Necas and Ehlers situations pan out. Whatever deal they put together for their young star will undoubtedly be a blockbuster, bringing in the pieces to boost Anaheim into a new era – one led by Carlsson, adorned by new jerseys, and hopefully bound for the playoff consistency the Ducks were once known for.

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