Prospect Notes: Hallander, Fiddler, Ivankovic
Pittsburgh Penguins winger Filip Hallander has returned to his home country of Sweden for training after recovering from a blood clot per Seth Rorabaugh of Trib Live. Hallander only played in 16 games this season – 13 in the NHL and three in the AHL – due to the blood clot.
Bad health kept Hallander from playing through his NHL rookie season – his next step after posting 89 points in 102 games through two seasons in Sweden’s SHL. Hallander found his confidence in Sweden and looked to return a much more capable play-driver, after getting his first taste of the AHL between 2021 and 2023.
Hallander began the season with Pittsburgh and scored four points, before a three-game scoring lull earned him a bump to the minors. He added one more point with Wilkes-Barre/Scranton before being removed from the lineup.
Hallander is a confident puck-mover who uses his skill to beat defenders and rack up points. He has yet to prove that talent at the top flight, though he does have 62 points in 107 career AHL games. He will be evaluated by the Penguins for availability at 2026-27 training camp upon returning from Sweden. If he is cleared by doctors, next season could be Hallander’s first chance to dig his feet into an NHL role.
Other notes out of the prospect world:
- Seattle Kraken prospect Blake Fiddler has announced his commitment to the University of Denver. He will join a strong cohort of young defensemen headed to the National Championship winners, alongside top 2026 draft prospect Ben MacBeath and Ryan Lin. Fiddler offers a confident bit of puck-movement and physicality, blending well with Lin’s dynamo offense and MacBeath’s strong defensive presence. Their additions will give Denver more than enough to make up for the loss of Hobey Baker Award finalist and San Jose Sharks prospect Eric Pohlkamp. Fiddler, a Texas native, racked up 11 goals and 36 points in 63 games with the WHL’s Edmonton Oil Kings this season. He carved out a second-pair role and posted a career-high plus-23.
- Sticking with college hockey, Nashville Predators prospect and University of Michigan starter Jack Ivankovic will join Team Canada at the World Championship per Daily Faceoff’s Jeff Marek. This will be a golden chance for Ivankovic to prove his iron man abilities after missing a chunk of the season due to a lower-body injury. Ivankovic returned well ahead of schedule from that injury and led Michigan to a Frozen Four semi-final loss against the eventual championship-winning Denver Pioneers. The second-round draft pick set 25 wins and a .921 save percentage in 35 games with Michigan this season. His performance marked the most wins from a goaltender under the age of 19 since Tyler Wall posted 26 wins with UMass-Lowell in 2017 and Billy Sauer posted 25 wins with Michigan in 2007.
Rangers Promote Tanner Glass To Director Of Player Development
The New York Rangers have made their first change of the summer. The club has released Jed Ortmeyer from his role as Director Of Player Development and promoted Tanner Glass in his spot per Vincent Z. Mercogliano of The Athletic. Glass has served as the Assistant Director since 2020. This decision is part of a complete assessment of New York’s departments, general manager Chris Drury told Mercogliano.
New York has now missed the playoffs in back-to-back seasons for the first time since 2018 and 2019. Their roster has failed to pull into a better form since those prior struggles, with Mika Zibanejad still leading the ship, now alongside Alexis Lafreniere and J.T. Miller rather than Mats Zuccarello and Pavel Buchnevich. The Rangers made the bold decision to trade star scorer Artemi Panarin partway through their losing season in an attempt to fortify their future assets, at the least.
Now the team will take another step to ensure they get more out of their draft capital. Glass played three seasons with the Rangers from 2014 to 2017, as part of an 11-year career in the NHL. He was a depth forward in every stop he made but found a way to stick in the lineup thanks to gritty and high-energy play away from the puck. Glass retired in 2018 and joined the Rangers as a development coach one year later. His presence has played a small role in the success of New York’s burgeoning youngsters, like Noah Laba and Gabriel Perreault, though Drury made sure to also praise Director of Amateur Scouting John Lilley for deciding to pick both players.
New York has value in the pipeline. They received high-scoring, OHL center Liam Greentree as part of a return for Panarin and recently watched 2025 second-round pick Malcolm Spence run to the Frozen Four semi-finals with the University of Michigan. Both players could one day secure roles in the lineup, as could shutdown defensemen E.J. Emery and Sean Barnhill or utility forwards Adam Sykora and Brody Lamb. Honing their development, as well as the development of future draft picks, will now be Glass’ top priority. New York has two first-round picks, one second-round pick, and four third-round picks as part of 11 total selections in the 2025 NHL Draft.
Evening Notes: Hronek, Tippett, Manson, Kiviranta
Vancouver Canucks defenseman Filip Hronek was injured in pre-tournament action with Team Czechia’s World Championship roster per Rick Dhaliwal of CHEK News. Dhaliwal adds that Hronek “should be okay soon”, likely a sign that the top Czech defender won’t miss tournament action.
Hronek has carved out an important role on Czechia’s men’s national team. He scored five assists in five games at the 2026 Winter Olympics and six points in eight games at the 2025 World Championship. The latter tournament was Hronek’s first appearance on Czechia’s national roster since the 2022 World Championship, where he scored two points in 10 games. That quiet showing was outdone by his 15 points in 17 games between the 2019 and 2021 World Championships. More than his scoring, Hronek offers a physical, puck-moving presence that helps the Czech push their aggressive forecheck. He would leave an irreplaceable hole on the top-pair if he missed tournament games.
Other notes from around the hockey world:
- Philadelphia Flyers forward Owen Tippett has been announced as out day-to-day with an undisclosed injury. He was doubtful to play in Game 1 of the second round after practice per NBCS’ Jordan Hall. A chance to rest could be timely for Tippett, who racked up two points in six games of the first round. It was a lackluster series for the scoring winger, after he tied his career-high with 23 goals and totaled 51 points in 81 games this season. He fills an important, shooter role in the Flyers offense and could leave a hole in the top-six. Tippett’s absence will secure rookie Alex Bump’s spot in the lineup. Bump scored nine points in the first 17 games of his NHL career this season. He also has one goal in two playoff appearances. He may be one of only a few black aces who could try to fill in for Tippett’s scoring impact.
- The Colorado Avalanche are also still nursing injuries. Defenseman Josh Manson and forward Joel Kiviranta are both still out day-to-day, head coach Jared Bednar told Bailey Curtis of DNVR Avalanche. Manson sat out of Game 4 against the Los Angeles Kings and hasn’t been able to heal up in six days since. He scored two points in the first three games of the series, continuing to fill an important, top-four role on Colorado’s defense. Kiviranta sat out of both Game 3 and 4, limiting him to no scoring and five hits in the first two games of the series. He totaled nine points in 51 games this season, rotaitng in-and-out of the team’s fourth line. Manson will immediately step back into the lineup when he’s back at full health, while Kiviranta will compete with Logan O’Connor and Parker Kelly for depth minutes.
Oilers Notes: McDavid, Dickinson, Draisaitl, Knoblauch
The Edmonton Oilers held their end-of-season interviews after failing to win one playoff round, on the heels of back-to-back trips to the Stanley Cup Finals. It was a day filled with difficult conversations and injury updates. Notably, both Connor McDavid and Jason Dickinson were revealed to be playing through foot fractures, head coach Kris Knoblauch told Sportsnet’s Mark Spector. Dickinson scored two goals in the opening game of the first round before missing the next two games with injury. He returned for the final three games of the series and added one assist.
McDavid played through all six postseason games but didn’t neccesarily appear like his usual self. He scored only one goal and six points. It was rare that he broke away with top-end speed or dominated offense – instead leaving those roles to Leon Draisaitl, Evan Bouchard, and Vasily Podkolzin who led the Oilers in playoff scoring. A fracture is reasonable explanation for those struggles and will now set both McDavid and Dickinson on the course of recovery for at least part of the summer. Knoblauch did not mention specifics for either player’s recovery.
Other notes out of Edmonton:
- Star winger Draisaitl was vocal about the team’s struggles, saying that he feels the organization took a step backwards per NHL.com’s Derek Van Diest. Their result at the end of the year made that backwards step evident enough – but McDavid echoed his teammate’s comments in his own interview. Draisaitl went on to speak to how big of a role Edmonton’s depth players filled on their run to the 2024 Stanley Cup Finals, even naming Ryan McLeod, Warren Foegele, Vincent Desharnais, and Cody Ceci. It seems the Oilers’ charge through the summer will be replicating that difference-making depth talent, if they want to appease their best players ahead of another playoff heave next season.
- No indication was made regarding Knoblauch’s future with in the Oilers head coach role through the team’s final interviews. General manager Stan Bowman said the organization will take their time to evaluate things before confirming if Knoblauch would be back per TSN’s Ryan Rishaug. Bowman went on to add that all aspects of the team will likely be evaluated, including his own role, after their disappointing end. Those decisions will give the Oilers a lot to consider in a small window before the NHL Draft in June and free agency in July.
Blue Jackets Not Expected To Re-Sign Erik Gudbranson
After a late-season collapse ultimately cost them a playoff spot, Columbus head coach Rick Bowness talked about changing the culture, assuming he would still be with the team in 2026-27. That question went away rather quickly and Bowness will now get a chance to really put his mark on the team.
It appears one of the changes will be coming on the back end. Daily Faceoff’s Anthony Di Marco reports that pending UFA defenseman Erik Gudbranson is not expected to return to the Blue Jackets next season.
The 34-year-old had a tough showing both on and off the ice this season. Felled by three separate injuries (including a hip issue that kept him out for 38 games), Gudbranson only suited up in 37 games. While that was an improvement on 2024-25, that games played total was still the third-lowest of his 15-year career. In those outings, he had three points along with 64 blocks and 45 hits in 17:46 per night of playing time.
A veteran of 842 career NHL regular season appearances across eight different organizations, Gudbranson has 35 goals and 105 assists to his name, along with 1,157 blocks and 1,757 hits. He has predominantly played a fourth or fifth role on depth charts throughout his career although his grit and coveted right-hand shot have always resulted in him having plenty of suitors. That demand landed him a four-year, $16MM pact from Columbus back in 2022.
Given his age and injury-riddled campaigns, it’s fair to say that Gudbranson won’t be able to command another deal in that range this summer. AFP Analytics projects a near-50% pay cut, with a one-year, $2.012MM deal. Notably, by missing so much time this season, Gudbranson is eligible for a one-year deal with performance incentives, an option that otherwise wouldn’t have been available to him for one more year. Assuming he’s amenable to signing such a deal, that should open up options with more cap-strapped teams.
While a decision has been made on Gudbranson (and Brendan Smith, who Di Marco also reports won’t return), Blue Jackets GM Don Waddell has some work to do with his other pending unrestricted free agents. The team has some of the more prominent unsigned veterans heading into the summer, headlined by centers Charlie Coyle and Boone Jenner along with winger Mason Marchment. In the short term, it wouldn’t be surprising to see the team concentrating on trying to get one or more of them locked up on a new deal in the coming weeks.
Charlie McAvoy Offered In-Person Hearing For Slash On Zach Benson
It was a tough end to the playoffs for Bruins defenseman Charlie McAvoy. On top of his team losing in six games to Buffalo on Friday, the veteran was ejected from the game for a slash on Sabres winger Zach Benson. In response, the Department of Player Safety announced (Twitter link) that McAvoy has been offered an in-person hearing. The date and time of the hearing have yet to be determined but with Boston done for the season, there is no need to hold it over the next day or two.
The in-person element is particularly important. While a phone hearing carries a maximum of a five-game suspension, an in-person hearing allows the league to suspend him for longer than that. If that were to happen, the NHLPA would then have an opportunity to appeal to Commissioner Gary Bettman as well.
The incident occurred late in the third period of Friday’s game. Benson was set to receive a slew-foot tripping minor on McAvoy and while play continued, McAvoy chased down Benson and gave him a baseball-swing slash, receiving a minor, major, and a game misconduct on the play. Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman was among those to provide a video clip of the play.
McAvoy has two suspensions on his record. He received a one-game ban in 2019 for an illegal check to the head on then-Columbus winger Josh Anderson in the playoffs and a four-game suspension in 2023 for an illegal check to the head on then-Florida blueliner Oliver Ekman-Larsson. Any supplementary discipline received will be served at the start of next season.
James Hagens Expected To Play For Team USA At World Championship
It has been an eventful season for Bruins center James Hagens, to put it lightly. He has already played for four separate teams in 2025-26 and it appears he’ll be adding to that total. Mark Divver of the New England Hockey Journal reports (Twitter link) that Hagens is expected to play for Team USA at the upcoming Worlds which begin later this month.
The seventh overall pick last June, Hagens spent most of the season at the NCAA level with Boston College, where he picked up 23 goals and 24 assists in just 34 games to lead his team in scoring. Midseason, he suited up for Team USA at the World Juniors and had a productive showing there as well, notching seven points in five contests.
That performance was good enough for Boston to decide to turn Hagens pro. However, they opted to have him take a bit of a different route. Instead of joining the big club right away, they signed him to an AHL tryout, allowing him to get his feet wet with Providence. He picked up a goal and three assists in six games with them, earning a full entry-level contract a little less than four weeks ago.
Hagens got into a pair of regular season games in the final week to get his NHL debut out of the way but ultimately didn’t play a regular role in the postseason. Hagens played in three of six games against Buffalo but was held off the scoresheet. Despite being 19 and only playing in five NHL games, his contract isn’t eligible to slide as he turns 20 in November. He’s also not eligible to return to Providence to aid in their playoff run. However, he won’t accrue a year of service time toward UFA eligibility so Boston still has seven full seasons of club control.
Between his four teams this season, Hagens has played in 50 games so far. He’ll now get a chance to add up to ten more while in Switzerland while trying to end his year on a high note.
Central Notes: Benn, Hyry, Klippenstein
Stars captain Jamie Benn is set to become an unrestricted free agent this summer, the same fate he faced last year before signing a one-year deal to remain in Dallas. While Lia Assimakopoulos of the Dallas Morning News believes that the organization would be willing to bring him back, there would need to be some tough discussions first as he’s now coming off his second straight subpar playoff performance. He’ll be 37 when next season starts so while he could still hold his own in a bottom-six role during the regular season but will those postseason struggles give them enough pause to start the search for a new captain? If not, Benn is eligible to once again sign a bonus-laden deal as long as it’s a one-year pact. He did so last summer, accepting a $1MM base salary with up to $3MM in bonuses, $2MM of which were reached and will count against their salary cap in 2026-27 thanks to them ending the year using LTIR.
More from the Central:
- Still with the Stars, forward Arttu Hyry won’t be available for AHL Texas in their series against Chicago, relays 100 Degree Hockey (Twitter link). The 25-year-old suffered a lower-body injury in the fifth game of the Dallas-Minnesota series earlier this week and while it was initially thought that it was a day-to-day issue, it appears that’s not the case. Hyry was on Texas’ roster at the trade deadline, meaning that Dallas can send him down once he’s cleared to return. He had 19 points in 27 AHL games along with five points in 20 NHL appearances during the regular season.
- Wild prospect Carter Klippenstein will be leaving the WHL next season to make the jump to the NCAA. Providence College announced on its Instagram page that the 19-year-old has committed to playing for them next season. A fifth-round pick last summer, Klippenstein was limited to just 38 games this season due to injury. Still, he was fairly productive, tallying 11 goals and 17 assists in those outings. With the transfer of leagues, Klippenstein’s signing timeline will be extended, giving Minnesota a couple of extra years to determine if they want to sign him. Had he stayed in junior, they’d have had to make that call just over a year from now.
Lucas Carlsson Signs In Sweden
A Sharks pending unrestricted free agent has decided to forego testing the open market to head home instead. Djurgardens in the SHL announced that they’ve signed defenseman Lucas Carlsson to a four-year deal that begins next season.
The 28-year-old spent the last two seasons in San Jose’s organization although it didn’t amount to a lot of playing time at the top level. Carlsson played in 13 games down the stretch in 2024-25 and held his own while picking up four points in over 19 minutes per night of playing time. But after the Sharks overhauled their back end over the summer, he was on the outside looking in again. This season, he played exclusively with the AHL’s Barracuda, collecting 12 goals and 14 assists in 58 appearances.
Over his career, Carlsson has played in 73 NHL games between San Jose, Florida, and Chicago. He has spent the bulk of his career in the minors and has been quite productive down there, tallying 219 points in 359 games over parts of eight seasons.
With that in mind, Carlsson would almost certainly have received interest in another two-way contract this summer from teams looking for a quality veteran blueliner who can hold his own in a pinch in the NHL. But instead of seeing what offers might have materialized, he decided that it’s time to turn the page and head home. That likely will close the book on his time in North America unless a strong performance overseas yields one last opportunity down the road.
Offseason Checklist: New York Rangers
The offseason has arrived for half of the league’s teams that aren’t taking part in the playoffs. Accordingly, it’s now time to examine what they will need to accomplish over the coming months. Next up is a look at the Rangers.
It’s fair to say that this season didn’t go to plan for the Rangers. Sure, they were coming off missing the playoffs but the hiring of Mike Sullivan indicated that the expectation was a return to the postseason. Instead, they finished last in the Eastern Conference and released another letter to the fans before moving away Artemi Panarin for future assets. GM Chris Drury’s checklist this summer involves continuing in that direction although there remains a chance that they look for a quicker fix.
Re-Sign Or Move Schneider
When Braden Schneider was the 19th overall pick back in 2020, the Rangers were hoping that they had a core defender on their hands. But after some stagnation early in his career and a tight cap situation, the two sides worked out a bridge deal two summers ago. Since then, with their struggles, Schneider’s name has come up in trade speculation although they didn’t pull the trigger on a move.
Now, the time for kicking the can down the road should be over. Schneider’s contract is up this summer and he’ll be owed a $2.64MM qualifying offer with arbitration rights. They’ll tender the offer but what comes next is the harder decision.
If Drury feels that Schneider should be part of the post-rebuild core, this is the time to sign him. It’d take a long-term deal worth more than double that qualifying offer but if he’s one of the long-term building blocks, then that price tag is justifiable. If not, then this is likely the right time to move him. The acquiring team then works on the long-term pact and sends the Rangers what would likely be another young player of some significance (potentially a winger with some club control to help replace Panarin). Doing a short-term deal would allow them to kick the can down the road a little longer but at the risk of hurting his trade value.
There are multiple veterans for whom a trade makes more sense than keeping; we’ll get to one of those next. But Schneider is one of the few toss-ups. They need to pick a direction with him, either commit to him for the long haul or move him out for another piece who will be around for a while.
Make The Trocheck Move
Beyond Panarin whose exit from the team was telegraphed long before it happened, the Ranger whose name was in the rumor mill the most was center Vincent Trocheck. By all accounts, there were some big offers made before the trade deadline but Drury opted to hold him for now, presumably thinking better ones could be coming this summer when more teams are looking to buy. Frankly, there’s some logic to the idea.
Now, it’s time to see if that bet was the right one. In theory, New York should be poised to capitalize here on the trade front. The list of top-six UFA centers is rather small this summer. It starts with Charlie and ends with Coyle. The list of teams looking for a top-six center? More than ten times as long. One team can ideally fill that spot by signing Charlie Coyle while the rest will have to try to do so on the trade front where supply is limited and demand is extremely high.
Trocheck could very well be the best center that gets made available this summer. (We’ll see what Alex Steen’s plans are for Robert Thomas, who could ultimately stick around.) Granted, there is a 12-team no-trade list that could affect things and Trocheck himself noted before the deadline that Western teams are on that list. However, there are still plenty of Eastern Conference teams who will be looking to upgrade down the middle, certainly enough to drum up a bidding war.
While the East Coast limitation increases the odds that Trocheck could be moved within the Metropolitan Division, this should be about getting the best return regardless of where it comes from. It’s a package that should include a first-round pick, a high-end prospect, and at least one other element, potentially a roster player to help offset some of the money (although Trocheck’s $5.625MM for three more years should be affordable for a lot of teams). It certainly feels like it’s time to cash in on that high demand.
Make Room For Youth
One thing that the Rangers did down the stretch was start to use their youngsters more. Gabe Perreault got a bigger role while young forwards Adam Sykora and Jaroslav Chmelar made strong first impressions. Drew Fortescue got his feet wet on the back end as well. And with that extra speed and hustle in the lineup, they were a lot more respectable down the stretch, winning six of ten games to close the season.
This isn’t a situation of reading too much into what amounts to garbage time performance. But it’s an acknowledgement that the Rangers need to see what some of their youngsters can do. With the belief that they’d like this to be more of a retool than a long-term rebuild, it’s critical that the team finds out which of these youngsters are going to be part of the core group at that time. The only way to do that is to give them a chance to play at the NHL level.
That means that this summer, the focus shouldn’t be on re-signing or replacing Jonny Brodzinski or Conor Sheary up front; those spots can be left for some of those youngsters. Is Matt Rempe (still just 23) or Adam Edstrom (now 25) still in the plans or are they movable? Would Taylor Raddysh’s or Urho Vaakanainen’s role be better served by more of a prospect?
This isn’t a case of bringing in half a dozen youngsters. That will cause a different set of challenges. But having a few spots available at the start of the year to use for evaluation would give the team a lot more information about the future. To do that, they may yet still need to move out a veteran or two.
Add Goaltending Insurance
There is one other roster spot that appears likely to be turned over to a youngster, that being between the pipes. With Jonathan Quick retiring, prospect Dylan Garand appears to be in line to get a shot at the full-time backup spot behind Igor Shesterkin. While it’s not ideal that a soon-to-be-24-year-old will be looking at limited minutes behind one of the NHL’s top netminders, Garand has to pass through waivers next season and it’s not a guarantee that he’d pass through unclaimed should they try to sneak him down.
But even if the plan ultimately is to re-sign Garand (a pending RFA) and have him in the number two role, they need a Plan B. If he struggles mightily in training camp, turning to midseason signing Spencer Martin isn’t exactly a viable option as he has struggled in his limited action at the top level.
Accordingly, this is the one position where a veteran addition could be useful. The ideal fit would be a veteran who could cover the backup role if Garand struggles or pass through waivers himself if Garand is ready for the job and serve as insurance with Hartford. Basically, the type of role they once envisioned for Louis Domingue but someone perhaps a little more proven. Buffalo signed James Reimer for that role for 2024-25 (though he never made it through waivers for their plan to work). Someone around that caliber of player would be a worthwhile addition, even if it goes against the rest of the goal of getting younger.
Photo courtesy of Danny Wild-Imagn Images.