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Snapshots: Kostin, Jets, Blue Jackets

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Unrestricted free agent winger Klim Kostin has changed agents, signing with Shumi Babaev, the agent announced (Twitter link).  The 26-year-old had a sparing role last season in San Jose, recording just one goal and six assists in 35 games with 111 hits but is only two years removed from a 10-goal, 21-point season which could get him a look on a one-year deal somewhere in the coming weeks or a PTO deal at worst.  If a guaranteed contract doesn’t materialize, Kostin could be a candidate to return home and play in the KHL; Babaev’s announcement notes that he will be representing the winger when it comes to contract discussions with both leagues.

Elsewhere around the hockey world:

  • The Jets showed interest in winger Andrew Mangiapane in free agency, relays Ken Wiebe of the Winnipeg Free Press. The 29-year-old wound up signing a two-year, $7.2MM contract with Edmonton with a chance to play in their top six; Wiebe adds that Mangiapane left a bit of money on the table to do so, suggesting that Winnipeg’s offer was for a bit more than $3.6MM per season.  Mangiapane is coming off a quiet year that saw him record just 14 goals and 14 assists in 82 games with Washington, his third straight season of a decline in points after a career-best 35-goal, 55-point campaign with Calgary in 2021-22.
  • The Blue Jackets’ only move goalie-wise this summer was moving out Daniil Tarasov who is now the backup in Florida, leaving incumbents Elvis Merzlikins and Jet Greaves as the presumed tandem. However, Aaron Portzline of The Athletic reports (subscription link) that Columbus is still looking to add a goalie.  Their desired target is someone with some AHL experience but who can hold his own in the NHL if need be.  Ideally, that would be a younger player but GM Don Waddell acknowledged that teams don’t want to give those ones up in a trade.  A waiver claim might wind up being the outcome and while that would mean carrying three goalies, the Blue Jackets are prepared to do so if need be next season.

Minor Transactions: 7/15/25

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It has been a busy 24 hours transactions-wise around the NHL with several restricted free agents signing before their qualifying offers expire later today.  Meanwhile, there have been some other minor signings involving free agents which we’ll run through here.

  • After spending the last four seasons in Seattle’s system on an NHL deal, defenseman Gustav Olofsson will be staying there on a different contract. The Kraken’s AHL affiliate in Coachella Valley announced that they’ve signed the blueliner to a two-year minor-league deal.  Olofsson is a veteran of 63 NHL games but saw just four games with Seattle.  Last season, the 30-year-old played in 51 games with the Firebirds, picking up three goals and 14 assists.
  • Lehigh Valley, affiliate of the Flyers, announced the signings of wingers Zayde Wisdom and Garrett Wilson to one-year deals. Wisdom was a fourth-round pick by Philadelphia back in 2020 and had 32 points in 68 games with the Phantoms last season but wasn’t tendered a qualifying offer last month.  Wilson, meanwhile, is a veteran of 84 NHL games but last played at the top level in 2019.  He had 14 goals and 14 assists in Lehigh Valley last season in 63 games.
  • After spending last season on a two-way deal with San Jose, unrestricted free agent defenseman Joey Keane is heading back to Russia as he has signed a two-year deal with Spartak Moskva, per a team release. The 26-year-old originally started in Carolina’s system but went to Spartak once his entry-level deal ended, spending two years there before coming back to North America last season.  In 2024-25, Keane had 11 points in 38 games, a stat line identical to his second season with Spartak.
  • Bruins prospect Cole Chandler has committed to Northeastern, reports the Northeastern Hockey Blog (Twitter link). The forward was a fifth-round pick last month after putting up 32 points in 64 games with QMJHL Shawinigan during the regular season while adding a dozen more in 16 playoff outings.  He’ll return to the Cataractes for the upcoming season and then move to the NCAA starting in 2026-27.

Blackhawks Sign Anton Frondell

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July 15: As was foretold, Frondell put pen to paper on his entry-level deal today, the team announced. The deal carries the maximum entry-level cap hit of $975K.

July 12: So far, only four of 32 first-round picks have signed their entry-level contracts.  That number should soon be increasing as Expressen’s Gunnar Nordstrom reports that the Blackhawks will be signing Anton Frondell to his first contract early next week.

The 18-year-old was the third overall pick last month, giving Chicago what they hope will be another future high-end center to have behind Connor Bedard down the road.

Frondell spent the majority of last season at the Allsvenskan level, a second-division professional league.  He played in 29 games with Djurgarden and fared quite well, notching 11 goals and 14 assists in 29 games.  Frondell also notched seven points in 16 playoff games, earning his team a promotion to the SHL for 2025-26.

Frondell has one year left on his contract back home and it’s expected he will remain there next season instead of making the jump to come to North America.  Nordstrom relays that the youngster isn’t expected to attend training camp with Chicago to focus on the start of the SHL regular season which begins on September 13th.

Once the season in Sweden comes to an end, Frondell would then be eligible to join Chicago, potentially suiting up for them for a handful of games down the stretch if Djurgarden doesn’t have a long playoff run.  As long as he plays in nine or fewer games for the Blackhawks next season, an outcome that seems likely, Frondell’s deal will slide and still have three years remaining on it heading into 2026-27.

Snapshots: Hartley, Penguins, Desnoyers, Army

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Long-time NHL head coach Bob Hartley has decided to return to coaching.  The KHL announced (Twitter link) that Hartley has been hired by Lokomotiv Yaroslavl as their new bench boss.  The 64-year-old will be making his second foray into coaching in Russia having spent four seasons coaching Avangard Omsk before leaving them in 2022; he hadn’t coached anywhere since then.  Hartley is also a veteran of 944 NHL games between Colorado, Atlanta, and Calgary with his teams playing to a .556 points percentage.  He won the Stanley Cup back in 2001 but only made the playoffs in three of ten seasons after that.

Elsewhere around the hockey world:

  • While Fenway Sports Group has said that they’re only interested in selling a small portion of the Penguins, their old ownership group continues to look into the possibility of one day buying a controlling stake, reports Josh Yohe of The Athletic (subscription link). The group, led by long-time Penguin legend Mario Lemieux, sold the team back in 2021 with a franchise valuation of $900MM.  Since then, franchise values have gone up with Forbes recently pegging the team’s value at nearly double that amount so re-acquiring even a controlling interest in the team might be costlier than what they received for it not quite four years ago.
  • The Wild’s AHL team in Iowa announced that they’ve signed forward Elliot Desnoyers to a one-year, one-way contract. The 23-year-old has four career NHL games under his belt, coming with Philadelphia back in 2022-23.  Since then, Desnoyers has played exclusively in the AHL and had 19 points in 59 games which wasn’t enough to earn a qualifying offer last month.
  • The Avalanche’s AHL affiliate announced the hiring of Derek Army as an assistant coach. The 34-year-old spent parts of the last five seasons as head coach of ECHL Wheeling, becoming the winningest coach in franchise history with a 153-137-19 record over that stretch.  Army also spent the past four seasons as their Director of Hockey Operations but will now focus exclusively on coaching with the Eagles.

Islanders Re-Sign Travis Mitchell

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The Islanders have now re-signed the last of their unsigned defensemen as PuckPedia reports (Twitter link) that they have signed Travis Mitchell to a one-year, two-way contract.  The deal will pay Mitchell $775K in the NHL, $100K in the minors, and has a guaranteed salary of $125K.

The 25-year-old joined New York in 2023, signing an entry-level contract as an unrestricted free agent.  That came on the heels of a solid NCAA showing with Cornell, including a 19-point senior season in 2022-23.

Mitchell joined AHL Bridgeport soon after leaving, getting into a handful of games with them to start his professional career.  He also has spent the last two seasons in the minors with Bridgeport and is coming off a 2024-25 effort that saw him record 13 points and 101 penalty minutes in 65 games.

Mitchell will be waiver-eligible for the first time this coming season but it’s likely that he won’t be claimed, allowing him to continue his development with Bridgeport under new head coach Rocky Thompson, a former blueliner himself.  Mitchell will once again be a restricted free agent next summer.

With this agreement, the Islanders are down to one remaining RFA to re-sign, winger Maxim Tsyplakov.  He was among the list of 11 players to file for salary arbitration earlier this month with hearings set to run between July 20th and August 4th.  The hearing schedule is yet to be released so it’s unclear exactly how much time GM Mathieu Darche has to try to get the 26-year-old signed without needing to have the salary decided by an arbitrator.

Justin Bailey Signs AHL Contract With San Diego

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An NHL veteran has found a place to play next season but he will have some work to do to get an NHL shot.  The AHL’s San Diego Gulls, affiliate of the Ducks, announced that they’ve signed winger Justin Bailey to a one-year, one-way contract.

The 30-year-old spent last season in the minors on a one-year, two-way deal but never got an NHL opportunity despite playing in 59 games with the Sharks the year before.  Starting off with the Barracuda, Bailey had 14 points in 33 games but he was more productive with the Gulls after being traded to Anaheim back in January.  With them, he notched 12 goals and 10 assists in 35 outings.

Over his career, Bailey has played in 141 career NHL contests, picking up 10 goals and 23 assists along the way.  He also has recorded 157 hits while averaging a little over ten minutes per game of playing time, primarily on the fourth line.  In the minors, however, Bailey has been a much more consistent contributor, picking up 155 goals and 122 assists in 438 games over parts of 10 seasons.

It’s likely that Bailey will officially sign a PTO agreement with Anaheim over the next couple of months, allowing him to suit up for the Ducks in training camp where he’ll count toward their veteran quota for exhibition action.

Filip Zadina Signs Two-Year Extension In Switzerland

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Back in April, winger Filip Zadina acknowledged to Ceska Televize that he’d be open to returning to North America for the upcoming season with an NHL out clause in his deal overseas.  However, it appears the type of offer he was hoping for didn’t materialize.  Instead, HC Davos in Switzerland announced that they’ve signed Zadina to a two-year contract extension.

The 25-year-old was the sixth-overall pick back in 2018 but struggled to live up to his draft billing.  After five seasons with Detroit, Zadina surprisingly asked to be released from the final two years and $4.56MM in cash owing on his deal with the Red Wings, intent on landing a fresh start with another organization over what looked likely to be a probable assignment to the minors in 2023-24.  While it was a gamble, the thought was that over time, he’d be able to recover that money.

But that didn’t exactly happen.  Zadina signed a one-year, $1.1MM deal with San Jose soon after becoming a free agent in 2023 and tallied a career-best 13 goals along with 10 assists in 72 games.  However, that wasn’t enough to secure a qualifying offer as he was non-tendered a little more than a year ago, making him an unrestricted free agent once again.

No guaranteed NHL offer came his way so Zadina decided to sign with Davos for last season.  He was more productive with them, picking up 21 goals and 13 assists in 43 regular season games while also picking up four points in seven games for Czechia at the Worlds back in May.

But instead of getting another chance in North America, Zadina will now try to build on his performance with Davos for the next couple of years.  He’ll only be 28 when this extension expires and with 262 career NHL games under his belt, that’s enough to keep him on the NHL radar if he keeps having success overseas.

Five Key Stories: 7/7/25 – 7/13/25

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While the bulk of the roster activity occurred on or around July 1st, there was still some movement of note over the past week, including a big CHL to NCAA transfer.  We’ll run down the top moves from around the NHL in our key stories.

Five For Two: A pair of arbitration-eligible restricted free agents inked five-year deals.  First, the Flyers signed blueliner Cameron York to a five-year, $25.75MM pact.  The deal buys out his first two seasons of UFA eligibility.  York had a career year in 2023-24 but struggled last season, notching just 17 points in 66 games while clashing at times with former head coach John Tortorella.  He’ll get a fresh start under Rick Tocchet next season with plenty of job security as well.  Meanwhile, not long after Utah opted to take Jack McBain to arbitration, the two sides agreed on a five-year, $21.25MM deal, one that gives the Mammoth three extra years of team control.  McBain set career highs in goals (13) and points (27) last season while coming up just short of reaching 300 hits for the second time in his career.  The signing ensures that an important part of their bottom six won’t be going anywhere for a while.

Howard Saga Ends: After deciding that he didn’t want to sign with Tampa Bay, prospect winger Isaac Howard has a new home as he was acquired by Edmonton for center Sam O’Reilly.  Howard subsequently signed a three-year, entry-level deal upon being acquired.  Howard was the 31st pick in 2022 and is coming off his junior year at Michigan State where he finished fifth in NCAA scoring, showing he’s ready for the next test.  He didn’t want to take that step with the Lightning but will with the Oilers.  O’Reilly, meanwhile, was the 32nd pick in 2024 and is coming off a solid showing with OHL London.  He’s expected to return to junior next season but immediately becomes one of Tampa Bay’s better prospects, allowing them to salvage a solid return from a tough situation.

Dallas Dumps Dumba: Needing to clear cap space, it was only a matter of time before the Stars made a move.  That move came in the form of trading defenseman Mathew Dumba along with a 2028 second-round pick to Pittsburgh for blueliner Vladislav Kolyachonok.  Dallas inked Dumba to a two-year, $7.5MM contract last summer but he struggled mightily, notching just 10 points in 63 games with some defensive struggles that saw him dropped to the third pairing during the season and benched outright in the playoffs.  Needing to get cap-compliant, the cost of doing so was one of their better draft picks which the rebuilding Penguins will be happy with getting at the cost of some cap room.  Kolyachonok, meanwhile, played in 37 NHL games last season between Utah and Pittsburgh and could be in the mix for a spot at the back of the roster for the Stars.

Manson’s Sticking Around: Avalanche defenseman Josh Manson has been a speculative trade candidate at times when Colorado looked like it needed to open up salary cap room.  However, he has been with the team for more than three years now and will be staying for a while longer as he signed a two-year, $7.9MM extension that begins in the 2026-27 season.  The 33-year-old has been a dependable defensive and physical presence when healthy but he has missed significant time due to injury in two of the last three years.  Manson is now just one of two Avs blueliners signed for the 2027-28 campaign; the other is Devon Toews.

More San Jose Movement: A busy summer in San Jose continued this week.  First, the team flipped defenseman Henry Thrun to Toronto for winger Ryan Reaves in a swap of players on expiring contracts.  Thrun was unlikely to break camp with the Sharks given their additions on the back end in recent weeks while Reaves could find himself in a reserve role like he had with the Maple Leafs last season.  They followed that move up with the signing of veteran winger Jeff Skinner to a one-year, $3MM contract.  The 33-year-old is coming off a quiet year with Edmonton that saw him record 15 goals and 12 assists in 72 games while logging just 13 minutes a night of ice time.  It stands to reason that he’ll get more of a chance with the Sharks, who have now changed up close to 40% of their roster from last season.

Photo courtesy of Jerome Miron-Imagn Images.

Lightning Sign Scott Sabourin

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The Lightning have added some grit up front for their system as the team announced that they’ve signed winger Scott Sabourin to a one-year, two-way contract.  Financial terms were not disclosed but PuckPedia reports (Twitter link) that it’s worth $775K in the NHL, $250K in the minors, and has a guaranteed payout of $350K.

The 32-year-old has seen NHL action in five of the last six seasons but it has been minimal, to say the least.  Sabourin played in just one game last season with the Sharks, an outing in late January.  Over his career, he has made 47 appearances at the top level, picking up two goals and six assists along with 103 hits and 58 penalty minutes.

Sabourin has been much more of a factor in the minors, however.  Last season, he notched 10 goals and 15 assists plus 111 penalty minutes in 68 games with San Jose’s AHL affiliate, the Barracuda.  That extended his streak of consecutive seasons with double-digit goals and at least 100 penalty minutes to three.  Overall, he has 88 goals, 93 assists, and 1,223 penalty minutes in 532 AHL contests over parts of 12 seasons.

Originally signed as an undrafted free agent back in 2013, Sabourin has now signed eight NHL contracts across six different organizations.  He’s likely to begin next season with AHL Syracuse while being a recall option if Tampa Bay decides that they want some extra physicality in the lineup for certain matchups.

West Notes: Rossi, Gushchin, Skinner, McQueen

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One of the more prominent remaining restricted free agents is Wild center Marco Rossi.  He has long been in trade speculation given what’s believed to be a significant gap to bridge between the two sides but with a little more than $10MM in cap space per PuckPedia, they have ample room to sign him or match any potential offer sheet.  Without the ability to file for arbitration, Sarah McLellan of the Minneapolis Star-Tribune suggests that Minnesota still holds the hammer in negotiations, especially since they’ve positioned themselves to be able to match an offer sheet, something Edmonton didn’t do last summer when they lost a pair of players to St. Louis.  At this point, a trade looks less and less likely so it feels like a situation where the two sides are going to have to hammer out a contract.  While the team has presented short-term and long-term offers, a shorter-term pact would seemingly make the most sense for Rossi if his camp feels that Minnesota’s offers are too low for a long-term agreement.

More from out West:

  • Sharks RFA winger Daniil Gushchin told Sport24’s Dmitry Yerkalov that he hasn’t decided yet if he’ll re-sign with San Jose or play in Russia next season. The 23-year-old was quite productive in the minors with the Barracuda, tallying 28 goals and 23 assists in 56 games but that performance didn’t give him much of an opportunity with the Sharks as he played in just a dozen games where he had only one assist.  Gushchin stated that he is hoping to make a decision about his playing future by the beginning of August.
  • Still with the Sharks, new winger Jeff Skinner received some trade protection in his contract according to PuckPedia (Twitter link). The 33-year-old has a full no-trade clause through January 30th at which time, the protection drops to just a six-team no-trade clause for the remainder of the season.  Accordingly, while this deal won’t stop Skinner from being a speculative in-season trade candidate, any move is likely to come closer to the trade deadline.  Skinner had 16 goals and 13 assists in 72 games with Edmonton last season.
  • If Roger McQueen doesn’t make the Ducks’ roster in training camp, he told Global News’ Scott Roblin (Twitter link) that he will return to WHL Brandon instead of pursuing NCAA options. McQueen was the tenth pick last month, sliding in the draft after being limited to just 17 regular season games last season due to back troubles but he was quite productive in those outings, picking up 10 goals and 10 assists.  Given that he missed most of the year, it’s not overly surprising that he’d elect to return to junior to get more game action in to try to make up for some lost time.

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