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Minor Transactions: 10/4/25

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With the preseason wrapping up today, some teams will be recalling players they’ve already cut to give them one more game or they will be returning players recently brought up for that purpose.  We’ll keep track of those moves here along with any other minor transactions.

Predators Re-Sign Luke Evangelista To Two-Year Deal

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Oct. 4, 11:02 AM: The Predators have officially announced the signing, confirming the $3MM AAV.

Oct. 4, 9:28 AM: Evangelista’s deal pays him $2.25MM in 2025-26 and $3.75MM in 2026-27, according to PuckPedia. That backloaded structure results in the maximum possible qualifying offer of $3.6MM, or 120% of his cap hit.

Oct. 3: The list of players who saw NHL action last season and remain restricted free agents is down to just two.  That number is soon set to be cut in half.  David Pagnotta of The Fourth Period reports (Twitter link) that the Predators and Luke Evangelista are making progress tonight on a contract; TSN’s Darren Dreger adds (Twitter link) that an agreement is expected to be reached soon while Chris Johnston of TSN and The Athletic indicates (Twitter link) that it should be a two-year deal worth $3MM per season.

The 23-year-old was a second-round pick by Nashville back in 2020, going 42nd overall.  Evangelista spent a good chunk of his first full professional season in the minors back in 2022-23.  However, following a 24-game stint that season that saw him record 15 points in a late-season recall, he has been a full-time player with the Predators ever since.

Evangelista’s first full NHL campaign saw him pick up 16 goals and 23 assists in 80 games despite averaging less than 14 minutes a night of playing time.  That earned him some down-ballot support in Calder Trophy voting for Rookie of the Year as he finished ninth in balloting that season.  He was limited to just one goal in the playoffs that season but expectations were high that Nashville had a legitimate middle-six contributor that could be relied upon.

Last season, Evangelista had 10 goals and 22 helpers in 68 games, producing at pretty much the same clip as the year before.  While it would be fair to say they were hoping he’d take a step forward offensively, staying at almost the exact same point-per-game rate was notable in a season that saw a lot of Predators underwhelm offensively as an early-season speculative contender wound up missing the playoffs altogether and not by a small margin.

Considering that he had two seasons of similar production under his belt, Evangelista was a safe bet to land a bridge deal; a long-term pact likely wouldn’t have been feasible for either side.  That makes the fact that it has taken this long to get a deal done rather puzzling.  While it’s believed that the two sides briefly explored a three-year agreement, those talks didn’t last long given the gap in expected salary, putting the sides back to a two-year agreement.  Clearly, both sides were pretty dug in with what they thought was fair in terms of money and only the threat of the season starting early next week with him still unsigned was enough to get this across the finish line.

Evangelista will once again be a restricted free agent in the 2027 offseason.  However, there will be one big difference next time, that being his arbitration eligibility.  As long as one of the two sides files for a hearing, the case will be resolved sometime in August that summer, preventing things from getting to this point next time.

Penguins To Waive Ryan Graves

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The Penguins announced (Twitter link) a significant list of cuts today as they work towards getting their season-opening roster in place.  Among those are five waiver placements, headed up by veteran defenseman Ryan Graves who will officially hit the wire at 1 PM CT today.

It wasn’t that long ago that the 30-year-old was viewed as a key shutdown defender.  Over his two seasons with New Jersey, he went from being a role player (going back to his Colorado days) to a consistent top-four player.  That helped earn him a six-year, $27MM contract with Pittsburgh back in 2023 as they were hoping that he could be a defensive anchor for them for a long time.

That hasn’t happened.  In the first season of the deal, his offensive numbers dipped to just three goals and 11 assists after two straight years of at least 26 points.  On top of that, he struggled in Pittsburgh’s defensive system and started to see his ice time cut later in the year.

That proved to be a sign of things to come for last season.  Instead of showing improvement in his second year with the team, things continued to go in the wrong direction.  As a result, Graves only got into 61 games (managing just four points) while averaging less than 15 minutes per night as he was deployed as a number-six defender when he was in the lineup.

That led to some speculative talk about a buyout this summer which clearly didn’t come to fruition.  However, with the acquisitions of Connor Clifton and Mathew Dumba in trades over the offseason plus a strong training camp from prospect Harrison Brunicke, there simply isn’t a spot for Graves on their opening roster.

Given his recent struggles and the fact that he has four years left on his contract, it’s safe to say that Graves will pass through unclaimed on Sunday and be assigned to AHL Wilkes-Barre/Scranton.  From there, he can try to rebuild some confidence and try to work his way back to Pittsburgh.  But few would have seen this coming just two years ago when he was given one of the bigger deals in free agency.

Joining Graves on the waiver wire from today’s moves are defenseman Alexander Alexeyev along with forwards Rafael Harvey-Pinard, Bokondji Imama, and Samuel Poulin.

The Importance Of October 6th On The NHL Calendar

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Generally speaking, October 6th is not a particularly important day in the NHL.  It’s either a day late in the preseason or early in the regular season, depending on when the campaign gets underway.

However, that’s not the case this year.  First, that is the day that season-opening cap-compliant rosters need to be submitted to the NHL as it’s the day before the regular season starts.  Accordingly, any players who have to clear waivers and be sent down before those rosters are due will have to be on waivers no later than Sunday, allowing for them to clear (or be claimed elsewhere) at 1 PM CT on Monday.  Accordingly, expect the waiver wire to be even busier than it has been in recent weeks in advance of a busy Monday afternoon for teams to get their opening rosters submitted.

Meanwhile, there is a second deadline on October 6th this season.  It also represents the deadline for players to sign contracts that contain salary deferrals.  A practice used a little more frequently in recent years (Toronto and Carolina have more than one player with this) in order to lower the cap charge, it was removed in the CBA extension that comes into effect next September.  However, parts of the new Memorandum of Understanding will be in play earlier, including this one.  With October 7th being the start of the regular season schedule, any deals with deferred salary have to be registered with the league no later than Monday.

With a few contracts of significance signed around the NHL in recent days (Kirill Kaprizov, Luke Hughes, and Jackson LaCombe, in particular), some fresh comparables have come in for teams and agents to work with.  That could push a few more deals across the finish line in the coming days with some players preferring not to have discussions extend into the regular season.

But if an agreement can’t still be reached, salary deferral is a mechanism that could allow the player to get a certain amount of total money in a contract while allowing the team to keep the cap charge at a particular number, allowing both sides to get what they want.  That is, assuming that the player is willing to wait until after the expiration of the contract to receive some of the money, something that isn’t overly popular.  But with the deadline to utilize this particular mechanism now just a few days away from being outlawed, it wouldn’t be surprising to see upcoming contract talks revisit this option to try to get a deal across the finish line.  If some prominent pending free agents are amenable, there could be an uptick in activity on the extension front by October 6th.

Wild Sign Filip Gustavsson To Five-Year Extension

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The Wild have reached a five-year extension with starting goaltender Filip Gustavsson that pays him $6.8MM per season for a total value of $34MM, the club announced. He was set to be an unrestricted free agent next summer but will now remain under contract through the 2030-31 season. The contract carries a no-movement clause that takes effect immediately and lasts through the 2027-28 campaign, according to Michael Russo of The Athletic. After that, it downgrades to a 15-team no-trade clause for the remainder of the deal. His take-home pay is entirely base salary with no signing bonuses, per PuckPedia. He’ll earn $8MM in 2026-27, $8.5MM in 2027-28, $7.2MM in 2028-29, $5.2MM in 2029-30, and $5.1MM in 2030-31.

In just a matter of days before the season starts, Minnesota GM Bill Guerin has removed nearly all anxiety from what was initially shaping up to be a franchise-altering free agent period next July. Both Gustavsson and franchise cornerstone Kirill Kaprizov were set to hit the open market. Guerin took care of business with the latter earlier this week by delivering the largest contract in NHL history for eight years and $136MM in total value. Now, only aging top-nine wingers Vladimir Tarasenko and Mats Zuccarello remain among the notables from the Wild’s 2026 UFA class.

Gustavsson is entering the final season of a three-year, $11.25MM deal carrying a $3.75MM cap hit that he signed as a restricted free agent in 2023. He landed that contract after a dominant platform campaign in which he broke out for a .931 SV%, 2.10 GAA, three shutouts, and a 22-9-7 record in 39 appearances.

His performance the following year, though, indicated the Wild were smart – at least initially – not to give him too much too soon. He regressed under the weight of being a primary tandem option for the first time, logging a more pedestrian .899 SV% and 3.06 GAA with a 20-18-4 record in 45 games. Considering the Wild’s reputation for having a stout defense held up in 2023-24, those numbers translated to a disappointing -4.8 goals saved above expected, according to MoneyPuck, placing him 27th out of 31 goalies who played at least half their team’s games that year. He, along with even worse results from backup Marc-André Fleury, was a significant reason why Minnesota missed the playoffs that year for just the second time since 2012.

The 27-year-old rebounded quite nicely in 2024-25, though. He took on more workload from the aging Fleury and became their true No. 1 instead of just a tandem option. While he didn’t quite reach the heights of that dominant 2022-23 showing, Gustavsson was still a top-10 goalie in the league by nearly every metric. That includes starts (58, t-7th), wins (31, t-6th), save percentage (.914, 6th), GAA (2.56, 10th), and shutouts (5, t-4th). He saved 15.3 goals above expected and ranked sixth in Vezina Trophy voting, leading Minnesota back to the postseason despite injuries to multiple key skaters, including Kaprizov, for significant chunks of the season.

He’ll continue being the Wild’s true starter for the foreseeable future and is set up for another 55-plus start season in 2025-26. He’ll have a new face as his backup, though. With Fleury retired, top prospect Jesper Wallstedt is making the jump to full-time NHL minutes. When Gustavsson signed his last contract, there was hope both internally and externally that Wallstedt would be ready to take over the No. 1 job in the 2026 offseason, one of the contributing factors as to why that deal was somewhat term-limited. After some significant bumps in the road in his development, though, that likely won’t be the case. The 2021 first-round pick’s development was tracking nicely up until last year. His numbers with AHL Iowa took a steep dive, plummeting to a 3.59 GAA, .879 SV%, and a 9-14-5 record in just 27 appearances as injuries limited his availability.

Minnesota committed to Wallstedt making the jump to the NHL before last year, though, inking him to a two-year, $4MM extension that’s taking effect for 2025-26. While they may have initially looked at this year as a chance for Wallstedt to take the reins entirely, the goal now is for a smooth NHL adjustment and a rebound to league-average territory. He is, after all, a two-time AHL All-Star and had the top GAA in the Swedish Hockey League as a 19-year-old. With slightly tempered expectations now, though, the Wild are committing to the more established option as they ramp up their championship pursuit.

Image courtesy of Matt Blewett-Imagn Images.

Emily Kaplan of ESPN was first to report the signing. Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet was first to report the terms.

Snapshots: Eichel, Janmark, Sweden, Sharks

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With Kirill Kaprizov off the board, Golden Knights center Jack Eichel is now arguably the top pending unrestricted free agent in the 2026 class.  In a recent appearance on Daily Faceoff’s The Sheet (video link), David Pagnotta of The Fourth Period reported that the hang-up in those conversations appears to be term more than money.  Financially speaking, he pointed to the $14MM AAV on Leon Draisaitl’s contract as one that stands as a reasonable comparable with Eichel’s price tag likely to come in somewhere near that mark on a max-term agreement.  But at this point, talks appear to be relatively slow with the two sides evidently not on the same page for how long they’d like this contract to be.

Elsewhere around the hockey world:

  • Oilers winger Mattias Janmark will miss around a week due to an undisclosed injury, relays Daniel Nugent-Bowman of The Athletic (Twitter link). Janmark had 18 points in 80 games last season while playing a regular role for them in the playoffs as well.  Notably, Edmonton’s cap situation is relatively tight and they’ll already be without Zach Hyman to start the season.  Now, while Janmark won’t miss much time, he’ll be out for the opener which could create a bit of an early cap crunch for them to navigate through.
  • Sweden’s hockey federation revealed today that future Blues GM Alex Steen has been named as a Player Personnel Consultant for their entry into next year’s Olympics. Steen will be taking over for Doug Armstrong as GM in St. Louis after this season.  Meanwhile, Blackhawks assistant coach Anders Sorensen will have that title for the Swedes in that tournament while Panthers assistant Myles Fee will serve as their video coach.
  • The Sharks announced (Twitter link) that they have recalled forward Shane Bowers, defenseman Braden Hache, and goalie Jakub Skarek from AHL San Jose. All three were cut earlier this week with Bowers and Skarek passing through waivers unclaimed.  They’ll likely be sent back to the Barracuda over the next day or two.

Atlantic Notes: Hutson, Jensen, Senators, Greer

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With new contracts handed out in recent days to Luke Hughes and Jackson LaCombe, some attention has shifted to Canadiens blueliner Lane Hutson.  While he still has one year left on his entry-level contract, the belief is that there is mutual interest in getting something done before the season begins.  In a recent appearance on Daily Faceoff’s The Sheet (video link), David Pagnotta of The Fourth Period suggested that the blueliner appears to be willing to leave a bit of money on the table, similar to what several of his teammates did in an effort to give themselves a chance to continue to add down the road.  However, that discount might be capped at a few hundred thousand per season on a long-term pact.  With both Hughes and LaCombe checking in at $9MM, it stands to reason that Hutson could very well land close to that number on his next deal as well, whether that comes now, in-season, or next summer.

Elsewhere in the Atlantic:

  • Senators defenseman Nick Jensen told reporters including Sportsnet’s Alex Adams (Twitter link) that he will suit up in Saturday’s preseason finale against Montreal. The 35-year-old underwent offseason hip surgery and at the time, it looked unlikely that he’d be back for the start of the regular season.  However, his recovery has been ahead of schedule and now he’ll get a chance to get a game in to see if he’ll be ready for opening night.  Jensen played a big role for Ottawa last season, averaging over 20 minutes a game while chipping in with 21 points in 71 outings, many of which were played through injury.
  • Still with the Senators, after recalling eight players back on Tuesday who had already been cut, the team announced (Twitter link) that all eight – Tyler Boucher, Hunter Shepard, Jorian Donovan, Oskar Pettersson, Xavier Bourgault, Tomas Hamara, Keean Washkurak, and Scott Harrington, have been sent back to AHL Belleville.
  • The league announced that the Department of Player Safety has fined Panthers winger A.J. Greer $2,213.54, the maximum allowable in the CBA, for a roughing incident on Tampa Bay’s Brandon Hagel. Thursday’s affair between the two sides was particularly chippy with the two teams combining for 186 penalty minutes, a dozen of which went to Greer on the play.

Snapshots: Lapierre, Ritchie, Steen

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The Washington Capitals did not enter the 2024-25 preseason with an abundance of NHL roles up for grabs, but that hasn’t stopped some roster hopefuls from making their mark on the team’s leadership. NHL.com’s Tom Gulitti relayed word from Capitals head coach Spencer Carbery that 2020 first-round pick Hendrix Lapierre has had an impressive preseason and may have played his way into the team’s third-line center role. Carbery told Gulitti that his level of confidence that Lapierre can play the center position and potentially earn “that third-line center role” has led to him considering alternate options for how to deploy other players – namely Connor McMichael moving back to the wing.

Should Lapierre claim the third-line center role, it’d be a significant, positive development for a player in need of exactly that. Lapierre looked like he was on the way to establishing himself as a full-time NHL player in 2023-24, scoring 22 points in 51 games. But he failed to build on that momentum in 2024-25: he was strong in the AHL (32 points in 32 games) but only played in 27 NHL games and only registered eight points. While at this stage it appears more unlikely he’ll meet his draft-year projection of becoming a top-six center, his progress so far this season is an encouraging sign that he still could become an impactful middle-six pivot, which remains a strong return for a first-rounder in the early 20’s range.

Some other notes from across the NHL:

  • The New York Islanders announced that young center Calum Ritchie has suffered a lower-body injury that will sideline him for at least one-to-two weeks. The 20-year-old pivot is entering his first season of professional hockey, something that is overwhelmingly likely to occur with the AHL’s Bridgeport Islanders. Ritchie is one of the Islanders’ top prospects and is widely considered to be a potential future top-six center. While this injury will slow him down, his performance in the OHL suggests he could be one of the top rookies in the AHL this season, assuming he does not play his way into the NHL too quickly.
  • The St. Louis Blues announced that special assistant to GM Doug Armstrong (and future GM) Alex Steen has been named to the management team of Sweden in advance of the 2026 Winter Olympic Games in Italy. According to a press release, Steen “will assist with scouting and roster selection” for his native Sweden. The move is notable in part due to the fact that Steen’s boss, Blues GM Doug Armstrong, has long been the top management figure for Hockey Canada’s men’s teams and will continue in that role for the 2026 Olympics. Sweden is among the top contenders to win a gold medal at the upcoming Olympics, alongside Canada and the United States.

Devils Trade Kurtis MacDermid To Senators For Zack MacEwen

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The New Jersey Devils have acquired winger Zack MacEwen from the Ottawa Senators in exchange for Kurtis MacDermid, per a team announcement.

This trade is a swap of two highly physical, down-the-lineup players. MacEwen, 29, is a 6’4 227-pound winger set to play out the final season of a three-year, $775K AAV one-way contract. He was signed by the Senators before the 2023-24 season and has played in 51 games in Ottawa across the last two seasons. During his stint in Ottawa, MacEwen managed four goals and six points to go alongside 78 penalty minutes and 104 hits.

MacEwen was in a battle to earn an NHL roster spot in Ottawa to start the 2025-26 season, but was not considered to be a favorite to win a fourth-line role. Now, rather than potentially hit the waiver wire and be sent to the AHL’s Belleville Senators, MacEwen has received a new opportunity with the New Jersey Devils.

At face value, it appears the Devils’ primary motivation behind this trade was financial. While both players are highly physical talents, MacDermid is generally considered to be a marginally more imposing player than MacEwen. But MacEwen is making $775k this season, while MacDermid is set to make $1.15MM against the cap and carries an additional year of term. So in swapping the two players, the Devils have managed to save some cap space while replacing MacDermid with a player who is likely to fill a similar (if not identical) on-ice role.

Having just committed $9MM in cap space to Luke Hughes, this move allows the Devils to gain a marginal amount of additional financial flexibility moving forward.

From the Senators’ perspective there are valid reasons as to why they’d agree to pay the higher price for MacDermid compared to MacEwen. Beyond being just a little bit bigger than MacEwen, MacDermid has been a full-time NHL player since the 2019-20 season – he hasn’t played in the AHL over that entire span. (Meanwhile MacEwen played 30 games in the AHL last season.)

As a result, while the Senators have taken on a greater financial commitment, MacDermid very well could prove to be an upgrade over MacEwen. The Senators recent preseason game against their division rivals, the Montreal Canadiens, was a rambunctious, highly physical affair – and it led to some in Ottawa questioning the team’s level of toughness and ability to endure some of the game’s more physical players. (such as Canadiens defenseman Arber Xhekaj) With this trade, it appears the Senators have made an attempt to reinforce their team’s toughness in advance of what is likely to be a set of bitterly-fought divisional matchups over the course of 2025-26.

Sabres Notes: Luukkonen, Kesselring, Mrtka

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The Sabres issued multiple injury updates today, none of them particularly positive. Goaltender Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen is dealing with a new injury unrelated to the one that’s kept him out of commission thus far, head coach Lindy Ruff told WGR Sports Radio 550’s Paul Hamilton. According to Ruff, Luukkonen’s injury will keep him sidelined on a week-to-week timeline, ruling him out for the Sabres’ season-opening contest and perhaps several more after that.

Luukkonen, 26, has emerged as the Sabres’ undisputed number-one netminder over the last two years. He was brilliant in 2023-24 posting a .910 save percentage in 54 games, but took a step back in 2024-25. (.887 save percentage across 55 games) With Luukkonen sidelined moving forward, the Sabres will turn to one of Alex Lyon or Alexandar Georgiev as the team’s season-opening starting netminder. Georgiev was signed to a league-minimum deal just before the preseason, while Lyon signed a two-year $1.5MM AAV deal earlier in the offseason.

Some other notes from Western New York:

  • Luukkonen was not the only Sabre Ruff said would be out week-to-week: he also noted that defenseman Michael Kesselring would be out of commission on a similar timeline. That’s a tough blow for the Sabres, who acquired Kesselring in the JJ Peterka trade and had hoped his addition would go a long way to shoring up their defense. He still could, of course, but it now appears he’ll miss at least the start of the season. In his place, the Sabres could elevate Conor Timmins from the third pair to play next to Owen Power on the team’s second pairing, or Jacob Bryson could draw into the lineup to fill that role.
  • Ruff also said today that 2025 first-round pick Radim Mrtka is dealing with an illness and will be unable to play in the short-term as a result. Because of this, Rochester Americans defenseman Zach Metsa will be recalled to play in his place in the team’s final preseason game. Metsa, 26, is an NCAA National Championship-winning defenseman who scored an impressive 46 points in 69 games last year for the Americans. He’s expected to begin the season in Rochester, but if his stellar play continues he could be a name to watch for an NHL call-up down the line.

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