Brad Treliving Was Never A Good Fit With The Maple Leafs
Last week, news broke that the Maple Leafs had relieved general manager Brad Treliving of his duties, ending an underwhelming tenure with the team that never made sense from the day he was hired in late May 2023. Treliving had previously been with the Flames for nine seasons before he and the team mutually agreed to part ways just weeks before the Maple Leafs hired him.
At the time of his departure from Calgary, PHR’s Josh Erickson noted that Treliving was well respected in NHL front offices, and it was likely he would find a new role quickly, which proved to be a spot-on prediction. However, that likely won’t be the case this time, at least not for an NHL general manager role, as Treliving may need to step away from the game or rebuild his reputation before another team offers him a prominent position.
Treliving’s career in NHL management is similar to that of former Pittsburgh Penguins general manager Ron Hextall, who was let go by the team around the time Treliving left Calgary. Hextall has not held an NHL role since then, and it’s possible Treliving might also need to take some time away from the game or be forced to do so if he can’t find work as an NHL executive.
Some folks might find it unfair to compare Treliving to Hextall, but their two recent runs as GMs show many similarities, as does their history in previous organizations. And as unflattering as it may be, both Hextall and Treliving inherited teams capable of winning the Stanley Cup, with star players at the top, and both oversaw the dismantling of their contention windows.
Folks in Philadelphia would argue that Hextall did the same thing when he was with the Flyers, just as fans of the Flames might feel the same about Treliving’s tenure there. Hextall and Treliving both operated without much semblance of a plan, so many of their moves appeared to be reactions to a changing market, attempts to undo a previous mistake, or attempts to pick up what they could when they realized they had a glaring hole in their roster.
But were Treliving’s moves in Toronto really that bad? The short answer is yes, and the long answer is much more complicated.
It wasn’t all bad for Treliving in Toronto, as the team did win a division title and pushed the eventual Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers to seven games in the second round last year. However, mistakes made early in Treliving’s tenure eventually compounded, leading to a year where almost nothing went right for him and the Maple Leafs.
In his first summer on the job in 2023, Treliving signed David Kämpf to a regrettable four-year contract worth $9.6MM before free agency. He then entered free agency and made a couple of solid short-term signings in Max Domi and Tyler Bertuzzi.
However, those deals were surrounded by a series of poor bets as Treliving signed Ryan Reaves to a multi-year deal, and agreed to one-year contracts with John Klingberg, Ilya Samsonov, and Martin Jones. Except for the Reaves deal, none of the other moves were particularly bad on their own, but they left the Maple Leafs in a similar spot come playoff time, as they bowed out in the first round to the Bruins. During that season, Treliving also extended Auston Matthews and William Nylander, essentially doubling down on a core four template that had yet to produce a deep playoff run.
Most of Treliving’s early mistakes during his tenure involved trades, where he often traded away depth players for very little and then spent a lot to acquire slightly better players. A clear example is a series of transactions late in the 2024-25 season, when he traded Connor Dewar and Conor Timmins to the Pittsburgh Penguins for a fifth-round pick, and then acquired Scott Laughton, along with a fourth- and sixth-round draft pick, for a conditional 2027 first-rounder and prospect Nikita Grebenkin.
Now, Timmins might not be an NHL defenseman at this point, but it’s hard to argue that Laughton is much of an upgrade on Dewar, especially after the season both players have had. In fact, it’s fair to say that Dewar would be an upgrade on Laughton at this stage of their careers, and he is five years younger than the 31-year-old Laughton. Essentially, those two trades marked a significant loss of talent for Toronto in just a few hours. It made their existing NHL roster worse and removed a key draft asset from their future. These two trades highlight a major issue for Treliving: he lost nearly every trade he made in Toronto, and this was nothing new.
The list of poor trades could fill an entire article on its own, with the most glaring example being the Brandon Carlo trade, which could haunt the Maple Leafs for years depending on how the first-round pick turns out.
But again, many of the moves weren’t necessarily bad; quite a few were unnecessary and revealed that Treliving didn’t have a clear sense of where his team was or what they needed to improve. A good example is the March 2024 trade when Treliving acquired Joel Edmundson from the Washington Capitals in exchange for a 2024 third-round pick and a 2025 fifth-round pick.
This move wasn’t terrible, but Edmundson was only a depth player at that point, and Treliving traded for him when the team desperately needed a top-four defenseman. It felt like a half measure, more like the Maple Leafs’ GM doing something just to say he did it. Critics will note that giving up two mid-round picks isn’t a big deal, but making three such trades a season quickly depletes your draft pool — which is exactly what has happened to Toronto. The prospect pipeline is now empty, and if the Maple Leafs are to have any hope for the future, the next GM will have to make the most of the few draft picks they do have.
Overall, Treliving’s tenure will be remembered as a period when he and the team never quite aligned, leading to a lot of movement but little results. The reality is that Maple Leafs fans and media may claim that Treliving didn’t do enough to push Toronto over the hump and to the next level in the playoffs, but the truth is that Treliving didn’t do enough right, and in fact, he barely got anything right for the Maple Leafs. That’s why they need to conduct another hockey management search at a time when their competitive window is closing quickly.
New York Islanders Fire Patrick Roy, Hire Peter DeBoer
The New York Islanders announced that head coach Patrick Roy has been relieved of his duties, and the team has hired former Dallas Stars head coach Peter DeBoer as his replacement. The move comes with four games remaining in the Islanders’ regular-season schedule.
Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reports that, unlike other recent mid-season coaching changes, such as the Columbus Blue Jackets’ hire of Rick Bowness and the Vegas Golden Knights’ hire of John Tortorella, this hire has not been made with just a one-year term. DeBoer’s contract to coach the Islanders includes multiple years. Specifically, DeBoer will reportedly be signed through the 2028-29 season per ESPN’s Emily Kaplan. This deal will align with Mathieu Darche’s GM contract. Roy had two years remaining on his deal as Islanders coach, per Pierre LeBrun of The Athletic.
Just one week ago, it looked as though the Islanders were on their way to the playoffs. New York won three games on its four-game homestand, and although a loss to the Chicago Blackhawks was deflating, a regulation win over the rival Blue Jackets gave the team a significant boost. New York sat second in the Metropolitan Division, three points clear of their closest out-of-the-playoffs division rival.
The Islanders have not won since that victory over the Panthers. They suffered an 8-3 loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins on March 30, paving the way for Pittsburgh to vault to the No. 2 spot in the division. They lost to the Buffalo Sabres the following day and have since dropped games to divisional rivals (Philadelphia and Carolina) on back-to-back days.
With playoff odds that once looked relatively certain, the Islanders have responded to a rapid, albeit relatively brief downturn in on-ice fortunes by making a coaching change. Their decision to swap coaches, likely in search of a spark to keep the team in a playoff position, is similar to the aforementioned decision by the Golden Knights to fire Bruce Cassidy in favor of John Tortorella.
Roy himself arrived in New York as part of an in-season coaching change. The 60-year-old, who was widely considered one of the greatest goalies of all time during his playing days, won the Jack Adams award as coach of the year in 2013-14. He went 20-12-5 in his first season with the Islanders, leading them to the playoffs, where they would fall in five games in the first round. The team took a step back last season, going 35-35-12, but appeared to have rebounded this season.
Fueled by star rookie Matthew Schaefer, the Islanders were one of the league’s resurgent organizations. Their prospect pool has significantly improved (rising from No. 25 in the NHL to No. 12 in just one year, according to The Athletic’s Scott Wheeler rankings), and, just a week ago, they looked poised to return to the playoffs after a one-year absence. But the last week has not been kind to the Islanders, as mentioned, and, with time running out to secure a playoff spot, they decided to swap coaches.
DeBoer comes in a little under a year after his tenure in Dallas came to a shocking end. The Stars reached the Western Conference Finals in all three seasons he was at the helm and compiled a 149-68-29 (.665) regular-season record, his best run with any of the five NHL teams he’s coached and the best regular-season record in the league from 2022 to 2025. Their inability to get past the third round, plus his decision to pull star goaltender Jake Oettinger after he allowed two goals on his first two shots faced in what became a season-ending Game 5 loss to the Oilers last year, ended up resulting in one of the more high-profile firings in recent memory. They waited to ultimately relieve him of his duties after all the other coaching vacancies last offseason had been filled, leading to him not being on an NHL bench for the first 95% of the season.
One could argue that DeBoer is the most accomplished active coach without a Stanley Cup ring. He has an exceptional record of deep playoff runs, particularly in his first couple of years with a club, and has reached a Conference Final in six of the last eight seasons. Despite the Isles now being his sixth team in the last 18 years, he’s been behind an NHL bench as head coach for at least one game every year since breaking into the league with the Panthers in 2008.
DeBoer’s 662 wins are 18th all-time, and he has a 662-447-152 (.525) lifetime record across 1,261 regular-season games with Florida, New Jersey, San Jose, Vegas, and Dallas. Only Barry Trotz had more experience as a new head coach hire in team history.
DeBoer now must correct a four-game losing streak in regulation to help the Isles recover. Their playoff odds had dropped to 31.4% ahead of today’s games, per MoneyPuck, with all the teams chasing them having one or multiple games in hand.
Image courtesy of James Carey Lauder-Imagn Images.
PHR’s Josh Erickson contributed significantly to this article.
Avalanche Still Big Winners In Martin Necas Acquisition
True NHL dynasties are often defined by more than their roster. It takes confident management decisions to stick at the top of the NHL year-over-year. The Colorado Avalanche proved their willingness to make a big swing in their handling of Mikko Rantanen‘s trade ahead of the 2025 Trade Deadline. Facing a costly contract extension, Colorado opted to trade Rantanen to the Carolina Hurricanes in late-January. The sudden deal wouldn’t stick for Carolina – who flipped Rantanen to Dallas. The fruits of the move were much more direct for Colorado, who took a homerun swing on Martin Necas‘ ability to replace Rantanen’s role. One season later, as Necas rivals the first 100-point season of his career, it seems the Avalanche hit it well out of the park.
Necas was an instant impact for the Avalanche in the second-half of last season. He scored 11 goals and 28 points in 30 games to close out the regular season, bringing his year-long totals up to 83 points in 79 games. Even through a cloud of trade drama, that performance was a career-year for Necas, whose previous career-high was 71 points. A full summer to adjust to Colorado’s system has quickly made both of his previous heights look slim.
Necas has racked up 36 goals, 94 points, and a plus-46 through 72 games this season. All three of those stats are new personal-bests – eight goals, 11 points, and plus-21 higher than his previous bests. That success comes alongside a league-best performance from the Avalanche roster, led by superstar Nathan MacKinnon, Necas’ new batterymate. MacKinnon’s all-out energy and control over play has allowed Necas to focus on his strengths – but his improvements stand out apart from the top-tier support. Necas has looked explosive off the rush and added a goal-scorer’s ability to bury chances through traffic. He has been there to finish the chances that MacKinnon creates, one of the roles that Rantanen filled in his back-to-back 100-point seasons in 2022-23 and 2023-24. With only four games left on Colorado’s schedule Necas likely won’t reach the 105 points that Rantanen scored in his best year – but he nonetheless brings century-scoring capability to the lineup.
The near-seamless replacement can make it easy to forget the rest of Colorado’s return. The Avalanche also brought in feisty, depth forward Jack Drury and draft capital from the Rantanen trade. They packaged one of those picks – a 2025 second-round pick – alongside William Zellers and Casey Mittelstadt to acquire Charlie Coyle and a pick from the Boston Bruins at the 2025 Trade Deadline. Colorado went one step further after the 2025 Stanley Cup Playoffs, trading Coyle and Miles Wood to the Columbus Blue Jackets for prospect Gavin Brindley, a 2027 second-round pick, and a 2025 third-round pick used on defense prospect Francesco Dell’Elce. Drury and Brindley have already shored up Colorado’s depth chart, while the additional capital boosted a bare Avalanche prospect room.
Reliable depth and future upside are fantastic additions to the value that Necas has brought to the top-line. Colorado also signed Necas to a deal $500K cheaper, and one year longer, than Rantanen landed in Dallas. The Avalanche have won every bet they made in a confusing, and surprising, trade of a top-line star. Even if the 2025-26 season stands as Necas’ career-year, his impact next to MacKinnon could help Colorado stick in Stanley Cup contention through the end of the 2020’s. The Avalanche sit confidently on top of the league – six points ahead of the second-place Hurricanes – with the end of the season nearing. They will enter the Stanley Cup Playoffs as the favorite out of the Western Conference, offering a chance to build on their 2022 Cup win.
Flames Reassign Brennan Othmann
The Flames reassigned winger prospect Brennan Othmann to AHL Calgary on Sunday, per a team announcement.
Calgary acquired Othmann, the #16 overall pick in the 2021 draft, from the Rangers on deadline day in exchange for 2024 second-rounder Jacob Battaglia. The Blueshirts had been shopping Othmann, who was never able to push above a call-up/fourth-line slot on the depth chart, dating back to the beginning of the season, but ultimately didn’t find the fit to move him as part of a larger deal. Instead, the Flames took him on as a more traditional change-of-scenery candidate while the Rangers still managed to recoup an even younger winger still with middle-six upside.
Othmann’s early returns in the Flames organization haven’t been overwhelmingly positive. Through 10 AHL games after the trade, he’s still scoreless and has only managed five assists with a -7 rating. Calgary still decided to give him a shot late last month, playing him in back-to-back games against the Canucks and Avalanche to close their March schedule. He had a goal and an assist, averaging 11:04 per game, but he was used puzzlingly in a checking role (81.0 dZS% at 5-on-5), and his possession numbers suffered for it. The fact that Othmann managed seven shot attempts despite spending so much time in his own end is something to applaud, though.
The 23-year-old was scratched in back-to-back games last week, so it’s of little surprise that the Flames have opted to get him back playing in the AHL instead of having him sit around as a healthy extra. Calgary has shown they’re keen on rotating some of their younger bubble players into the lineup to close out another season without playoff action, recently recalling Aydar Suniev and getting 2024 first-rounder Matvei Gridin into a top-six role.
Othmann will require waivers to head to the minors beginning next season. Calgary will need to decide whether his AHL production – 41 goals and 90 points in 130 career games – is worth earmarking an NHL roster spot for him, regardless of his training camp performance, to avoid the risk of losing him for nothing in the fall.
Panthers Reassign Mikulas Hovorka
The Panthers reassigned defenseman Mikulas Hovorka to AHL Charlotte on Sunday, according to a team announcement. He had played in Florida’s last two games in place of Dmitry Kulikov, who suffered a broken nose last Tuesday against the Senators. With Kulikov back in the lineup today for the second half of the Cats’ back-to-back against the Penguins, Hovorka comes out of the lineup and will head straight back to Charlotte after the Checkers recently clinched a playoff berth.
Hovorka’s appearances last week were the second and third of his NHL career. The 24-year-old made his NHL debut in a one-game call-up back in February before returning to Charlotte. Across all three outings this season, the 6’6″ righty has a -3 rating with three hits while averaging 13:30 of ice time per game.
Florida signed Hovorka as an undrafted free agent out of Czechia’s HC Motor Ceske Budejovice in 2024. Over nearly two full seasons in Charlotte, the Prague native has a 7-19–26 scoring line with 77 penalty minutes and a +23 rating in 113 outings.
While the mammoth rearguard has shown good defensive instincts in the minors, he couldn’t carry those over into his brief NHL trials this season. The Panthers have been outshot 18-8 and outchanced 20-12 with Hovorka on the ice at 5-on-5, per Natural Stat Trick. He was also on the ice for a goal against in under two minutes of cumulative shorthanded ice time.
Florida may be eliminated from playoff contention, but they’ll still take any help they can get from their veteran players who can push through lingering injuries or make early returns. Even with Kulikov back in the fold, they’re without nine lineup regulars, including Uvis Balinskis, Aaron Ekblad, and Niko Mikkola on defense. None of them will play in the four games remaining on the Cats’ schedule after today.
Penguins’ Stuart Skinner Out With Upper-Body Injury
The Penguins announced this afternoon that they’ve recalled winger Avery Hayes from AHL Wilkes-Barre/Scranton and goaltender Taylor Gauthier from ECHL Wheeling. Gauthier is dressing as Arturs Silovs‘ backup this afternoon against the Panthers, as Stuart Skinner is unable to dress because of an upper-body injury.
Skinner was healthy enough to dress as Silovs’ backup in a scheduled start for the latter yesterday, so it’s unclear what’s causing him to have to stay off the ice today. That’ll also mean back-to-back starts for Silovs in under 24 hours against Florida after he allowed four goals on 23 shots yesterday. Luckily, he got nine goals’ worth of support from Pittsburgh’s offense to record his 18th win of the season.
For whatever reason, the Penguins weren’t going to be able to get either of their highly-touted AHL netminders, Sergey Murashov or Joel Blomqvist, to Pittsburgh in time for today’s 2:00 p.m. Central puck drop. It’ll be Gauthier, the #5 on Pittsburgh’s goaltending depth chart, getting the bump for now as a result. Josh Yohe of The Athletic reports that the Pens will recall Murashov later in the week if Skinner needs to miss multiple games, though.
Gauthier, 25, initially signed with the Pens as an undrafted free agent out of the WHL’s Portland Winterhawks back in 2022. They opted not to issue him a qualifying offer when his entry-level contract expired last summer, but he returned to the organization on a one-year minor-league contract anyway. The ECHL’s Goalie of the Year back in 2023-24, he’s had another spectacular season in Wheeling with a .932 SV%, 2.00 GAA, three shutouts, and a 20-7-5 record in 33 games. That was enough to earn him a two-way deal from Pittsburgh at the trade deadline, making him eligible to join the club as an emergency backup option for the playoffs.
As the Penguins continue to jockey for playoff positioning in the Metropolitan Division, they’ll have to do so without Skinner for now. He had been emerging as their likely Game 1 starter. Head coach Dan Muse had been quite strict in a nightly rotation with Skinner and Silovs since the former’s acquisition from the Oilers in December, but Skinner had started four out of five leading into yesterday’s win over Florida and was expected to make it five of seven today.
Skinner’s .886 SV% and 11-8-5 record in 24 games since his acquisition aren’t much to write home about, but he’s been steadily improving while Silovs has hit a rough patch. Over each netminder’s last 10 games, Skinner has saved 1.4 goals above expected while Silovs has a gnarly -6.4 GSAx, per MoneyPuck.
The Penguins have all but clinched a playoff spot, entering today’s schedule with a 99.2% chance at a postseason berth. There’s now a five-point gap between them and the Islanders for second place in the Metro, with the Pens having five games left and New York having four.
As for Hayes, he was technically rostered for yesterday’s game as well as a scratch, so this morning’s announcement is overdue. He was just sent down to WBS on Friday but played for them that night, making him eligible to come back up to the NHL roster right away. He didn’t draw into the lineup for today’s game either but now has three goals through his first 13 NHL games, all this season.
Maple Leafs Linked To Sunny Mehta For GM Vacancy
The Maple Leafs have Panthers assistant general manager Sunny Mehta on their initial list of desired candidates to succeed Brad Treliving in the GM’s chair, Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet said on last night’s “Saturday Headlines.”
Mehta, 47, has long been a prominent face in advanced analytics. The Michigan native has had quite the long and winding road through his professional life – from earning a master’s degree in data science to becoming a professional poker player and bestselling author – before he got into online analytics blogging in the early 2010s. After quickly gaining acclaim in that sphere, he did some consulting work for the Coyotes before being hired as the Devils’ director of analytics in 2014, heading up the league’s first dedicated analytics department.
He remained in that role with New Jersey through 2018. He then did some freelance work with the Capitals and several Major League Baseball teams before getting brought into the Panthers’ front office by then fresh-faced GM Bill Zito in 2021. Mehta served as the team’s director of hockey strategy and intelligence for two years before Zito promoted him to his inner circle as an AGM, a role he’s stayed in since the Cats’ first of three consecutive trips to the Stanley Cup Final in 2023 while also serving as their director of analytics.
Keith Pelley, the president of the Leafs’ parent company, made clear in his media availability at the beginning of last week that his GM hire would be “data-centric.” There’s perhaps no individual more fitting of that description than Mehta. He’s played a key role in Florida’s successful acquisition of under-utilized depth pieces like Evan Rodrigues and Niko Mikkola over the past few years.
Snapshots: Bogosian, O’Rourke, Kvasnicka
Minnesota Wild defenseman Zach Bogosian left the team’s game yesterday with an undisclosed injury, and will miss today’s game against the Detroit Red Wings, per a team announcement. Bogosian played just over 14 minutes in the Wild’s win over the Ottawa Senators yesterday. He’s been the Wild’s No. 7 defenseman in terms of average time on ice per game this season, registering 14:02 per game, including about 45 seconds per game on the penalty kill.
The Wild have two options on their roster who could replace Bogosian in the lineup: veteran Jeff Petry and 23-year-old Daemon Hunt. Since Petry is a right-shot defenseman, he seems to be the more likely candidate to claim Bogosian’s spot on the right side of Minnesota’s third pairing. Petry was acquired from the Florida Panthers earlier in the season, and has played in three games for the Wild so far. He’s averaged just over 12 minutes per game in Minnesota so far. The stakes for the Wild remain high in their upcoming games, as they still possess a slim chance at overtaking the Dallas Stars and earning home-ice advantage for the opening round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
Other notes from around the world of hockey:
- Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet reported on yesterday’s “Saturday Headlines” segment of Hockey Night in Canada that Texas-born Kade O’Rourke has applied for exceptional status to join the OHL next season. Friedman cited several conversations he had with people who believe there is “no question” O’Rourke is ready to play in the OHL next season. O’Rourke, a 6’1″ right-shot defenseman, scored four goals and 10 points in the OHL Cup, leading the Toronto Jr. Canadiens to the Final.
- While the New York Islanders have had a difficult week that has thrown their playoff odds into question, their organizational future remains one of the league’s brightest. Rookie defenseman Matthew Schaefer has taken the league by storm, and The Athletic’s Scott Wheeler recently ranked the team’s prospect pool No. 12 in the NHL, up a whopping 13 spots from where it ranked last season, at No. 25. According to Wheeler, of the biggest risers in the team’s prospect pool is WHL forward Jacob Kvasnicka. The Minnesota-born winger was drafted in the seventh round by the Islanders at the 2025 draft, 202nd overall. He’s led the expansion Penticton Vees in scoring with 35 goals and 85 points in 65 games this season.
Injury Notes: Stars, Red Wings, Hague
The Dallas Stars have been dealing with quite a few injuries at this point in the season, and there has been some concern that the injuries could throw a wrench in the team’s plans of capturing its first Stanley Cup title since 1999. Head coach Glen Gulutzan alleviated some of that concern yesterday, when he expressed optimism to the media that the Stars would be getting back several of their injured players over the next two weeks. In particular, he noted that injured center Roope Hintz, one of the team’s most consistent forwards, is nearing a return to full health.
Hintz has been out since March 6 with a lower-body injury. He has 15 goals and 44 points in 53 games this season, and is Dallas’ No. 2 center behind Wyatt Johnston. Also injured for the Stars is Tyler Seguin, who suffered a torn ACL and is out for the season. Among the players Gulutzan indicated would at some point return in time for the playoffs are Radek Faksa (day-to-day, UBI), Sam Steel (day-to-day, LBI), Nathan Bastian (undisclosed), Michael Bunting (day-to-day, LBI) and Tyler Myers (undisclosed).
Other injury notes from around the NHL:
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- After the Detroit Red Wings’ deflating loss to the New York Rangers yesterday, head coach Todd McLellan told the media that veteran defenseman Justin Faulk and forward Mason Appleton are both questionable to play in today’s game against the Minnesota Wild. Faulk did not play Saturday in New York as the result of an upper-body injury, while Appleton sat out Saturday’s game with a lower-body injury. Appleton’s fourth-line right wing role was taken on by veteran Dominik Shine yesterday. Jacob Bernard-Docker was elevated onto the second pairing to fill Faulk’s shoes, allowing rookie Axel Sandin-Pellika to draw back into the lineup.
- Nashville Predators defenseman Nicolas Hague left yesterday’s crucial win over the San Jose Sharks with an undisclosed injury, according to a team announcement. Hague missed some time earlier this season with a lower-body injury, though it is unclear at this point if what sidelined him yesterday is related to that ailment. Hague has been Nashville’s No. 3 defenseman this season, averaging 19:37 time on ice per game. He’s also a leading penalty killer for the club, averaging 2:04 per game while short-handed. The extent of Hague’s injury has yet to be revealed, but his status before the team’s all-important game Monday against the Los Angeles Kings will be important to track. If he ends up unable to dress for that game, the team is likely to rely more heavily on third-pairing left-shot defenseman Adam Wilsby.
Red Wings Sign Noah Dower-Nilsson
The Detroit Red Wings have signed prospect forward Noah Dower-Nilsson to a three-year entry-level contract, according to a team announcement. The deal is set to begin in the 2026-27 season.
Dower-Nilsson has spent the last two years playing for the senior team of Frölunda HC in the SHL. Frölunda fell to Luleå in six games in this year’s SHL quarterfinals, ending Dower-Nilsson’s season.
The Red Wings’ press release announcing the signing did not contain any language indicating Dower-Nilsson has signed any sort of tryout agreement to spend the rest of 2025-26 in the AHL with the playoff-bound Grand Rapids Griffins. Unless something changes, that would indicate the 20-year-old is likely to cross the Atlantic and make his North American debut later this year, rather than on a more immediate basis.
As previously mentioned, this season was Dower-Nilsson’s second as a full-time player in the pro ranks. He played in 35 games for Frölunda last season, scoring 10 points while averaging 10:49 time on ice per game. This season, Dower-Nilsson saw his ice time rise to 12:20 per game, and his production rose with it. He scored six goals and 16 points this season, and added four points in six games in the quarterfinal series loss to Luleå.
Although Dower-Nilsson was not ranked among the top 24 prospects in the Red Wings’ system by Elite Prospects entering the season, it appears he has taken a real step forward in his game. The outlet’s Swedish scout Jimmy Hamrin wrote in an early-season game report that “it looks like [Dower-Nilsson] has taken his game another step ahead.” Hamrin assigned Dower-Nilsson a middle-six NHL projection.
Before he can reach that point, though, he’ll likely need to begin by developing in Grand Rapids. The Red Wings have an extensive track record of success developing European prospects at the AHL level, and they will hope to continue that track record with Dower-Nilsson.