These Summer Signings Already Look Like Trouble
NHL free agency often results in some big misses, and this past summer was no exception. Even though we’re only two months into the regular season, it’s already clear that some of the contracts teams signed could turn out to be disasters, and for some, it was obvious from the start. Let’s take an early look at a few contracts that might not age well.
When Cody Ceci signed his four-year, $18MM contract on July 1, there was real sticker shock across the league. It was a significant overpay, destined to be a poor contract from day one.
Now, after 29 games, Ceci has one goal and five assists, averaging 17:39 of ice time per game while playing a third-pairing role at even strength. Ceci ranks 516th out of 554 players in the NHL in on-ice goal share for those who’ve played over 200 minutes at 5-on-5 at 34.5%.
The tricky part for Kings fans is that this was quite predictable from the moment the contract was signed, but there was a silver lining in the potential for Ceci to provide some physicality on the back end. However, that hasn’t been the case this year, as Ceci has managed just 15 hits in 29 games.
Ceci will turn 32 later this month, and there’s no upside to his game at this stage. With three years remaining on the deal after this season, the contract might even become a buyout candidate before it expires.
Trent Frederic signed one of the more surprising deals this past summer, agreeing to an eight-year extension worth $3.85MM per season after the Oilers picked him up from the Bruins at last year’s trade deadline. While the AAV is a bit high for what he offers, the length of the deal is also extraordinary.
Two months into the contract, it looks like a miss. Frederic has only two goals in 28 games this season and has been a burden to everyone he plays with.
The 27-year-old was never expected to live up to his contract fully, but in previous seasons, he showed some goal-scoring ability and contributed other intangible qualities. While he’s still tallying 68 hits this year, he’s doing so with virtually no other positive impact, making it hard to believe that he once produced 40 points in a season.
In 51 games as a member of the Oilers (29 regular-season games and 22 playoff games), Frederic has scored three goals and three assists. This, of course, dates back to last season, but it’s hard to understand that the Oilers saw what they saw at the end of last season and decided to sign him up for another eight years.
In fairness to the Oilers, Frederic was dealing with a high ankle sprain last season, which is notoriously tricky to play through and can have effects lasting a year – a silver lining if you’re Edmonton. Maybe Frederic is still battling a nagging injury and isn’t able to play as well as he did in some of his earlier seasons in Boston. Time will tell, but for the Oilers and their fans, Frederic’s recent play is concerning.
Next, there’s goaltender Ville Husso of the Ducks – or more often, their AHL affiliate in San Diego. Anaheim general manager Pat Verbeek decided to keep Husso around last summer with a two-year, $4.4MM contract extension.
The deal didn’t make much sense at the time, as the Ducks already had Lukáš Dostál in the fold, and they signed Husso the day after trading John Gibson to the Red Wings for a package including Petr Mrázek. Some thought Husso might be the backup, and that Mrazek could be moved, but so far, he remains, and Husso has had limited NHL action.
Mrázek effectively moved into the backup spot ahead of Husso, which somewhat undermines the reason for re-signing the 30-year-old. Husso is a well-paid third-string goaltender for the Ducks, and there’s a reasonable case that he’s an average third-stringer at best.
In six NHL games this season, Husso has a 4-2-0 record with a 2.82 GAA and a .875 SV%. His numbers are noticeably better in the AHL with a 6-4-3 record, a 2.49 GAA, and a .908 SV%. However, he’s earning $2.2MM this season, a higher AAV than high-end veteran No. 2 options like Jake Allen, Jonathan Quick, and Scott Wedgewood.
Husso’s deal came shortly after a solid four-game audition in Anaheim at the end of last season, and it’s hard to imagine Verbeek was envisioning Husso as a tweener. The deal was likely made to provide Anaheim with a backup so they could trade Mrázek, but unfortunately, they couldn’t move him. Even if that was the case, Husso’s deal was a stretch, and while it isn’t overly restrictive to the salary cap, it’s a bad contract to hand out.
A couple of other deals that might not work out well are the Ryan Lindgren contract with the Kraken and Brian Dumoulin’s agreement with the Kings. Lindgren signed for four years and $18MM in the summer and has contributed nothing offensively (three assists in 25 games) for the Kraken and hasn’t been physical at all, with just 14 hits.
Lindgren was a massive drain on whoever he played with last season, giving Rangers defenseman Adam Fox all kinds of problems. However, it wasn’t that long ago that Lindgren was a top-pairing defenseman in New York, and if he ever got back to that level, he would be worth the money. But his play has been this way for over a year now, and it might just be the player he is now.
The Dumoulin deal in Los Angeles, like the Ceci one, was a head-scratcher. There was a time when Dumoulin was a legitimate top-pairing defenseman who had a great first pass, excellent gap control, and elite defensive awareness.
However, his body has slowed over time, and that terrific skating has become a liability, preventing him from getting space for his good breakout passes or closing gaps. Dumoulin has been fine this season for the Kings, but the deal has another two and a half years remaining and is unlikely to age well.
Latest On Olympic Rink Construction
NHL Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly met with the media to share the latest on the ice rink construction for the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milano Cortina, with updates summarized by ESPN’s Emily Kaplan. Daly confirmed that the rink will finish construction on February 2nd, just three days before the women’s tournament is scheduled to begin. The men’s tournament is set to start on February 11th. Daly added that the NHL has sent their own ice technicians and experts to Milano Cortina to support the construction, saying:
We’re basically moving everybody there to try to help get this done in a way that’s acceptable for NHL athletes. And I’m cautiously optimistic it will be fruitful.
The NHL is hearing positive updates, per Daly, and doesn’t view the construction challenges as an insurmountable barrier. At the same time, Daly said the NHL won’t send players if the ice conditions are deemed unsafe to play on. The ice sheet itself is set to be a standard international size – 196.85 feet by 85.3 feet (60 meters by 26 meters). That was the sized used in past Olympic events, but goes against an agreement made this summer between the NHL and IIHF. The NHL found out about the improper sizing last week. They okayed the it for 2026 but will expect proper dimensions for the 2030 Winter Olympics, per Daly.
The NHL is set to pause play for two weeks for the Winter Olympics. With an insistance that there is no contingency plan – Olympic hockey will only play at this newly-constructed arena next year – the NHL could find themselves in a true all-or-nothing situation. Daly spoke to the league’s optimism but also acknowledged that they may need to come up with an emergency solution, if faced with worst case scenario. What that solution would look like will be up to little more than speculation. The NHL set history with the 4-Nations Face-Off – an international, best-on-best tournament hosted by the NHL – last February. That could be a framework that let’s jettisoned Olypmians get back on the ice, while not disturbing the vacation plans of those not headed to Italy.
Golden Knights Recall Dylan Coghlan, Assign Jaycob Megna
The Vegas Golden Knights have swapped depth defenseman on the NHL roster. Dylan Coghlan has been recalled, while Jaycob Megna has been reassigned to the AHL. Neither player has appeared in an NHL game this season.
Megna, 32, was recalled to the Golden Knights roster on December 1st. He has been rotated between the NHL and AHL roster three times since clearing waivers on October 2nd. Through that movement, he’s managed to appear in 15 games with the Henderson Silver Knights. He’s recorded five points, 12 penalty minutes, and a plus-six in those appearances. That includes two points, four penalty minutes, and a plus-three in his last four games. Megna also has eight seasons of NHL experience. He has appeared in 193 games, and scored 27 points, through stints with the Anaheim Ducks, San Jose Sharks, Chicago Blackhawks, and Florida Panthers.
Coghlan, 27, has performed well in-line with Megna. He has 10 points, 10 penalty minutes, and a plus-four in 20 games with Henderson. This is his recall of the season. He appeared in six games with the Winnipeg Jets, with no scoring, last year and 18 games with the Carolina Hurricanes between 2022 and 2024. Coghlan has appeared in 112 games across six seasons, and three teams. He has 22 points and a minus-10 in those appearances.
This swap surely has more to do with roster technicalities than it does lineup implications. Megna will only be able to spend 15 more days on the NHL roster, before he will have to clear through waivers to be reassigned to the minors. The Golden Knights appear to be using those days sparingly, after recalling Megna for one week in October and the first week of December.
Canadiens Reassign Kaapo Kahkonen
12/8: The Canadiens have reversed this move with Montembeault feeling better.
12/7: The Montreal Canadiens have recalled goaltender Kaapo Kahkonen from the AHL. He will backup Jakub Dobes with Sam Montembeault under the weather, per hockey insider Frank Seravalli.
Kahkonen has served as backup for the AHL’s Laval Rockets this season. He has a 6-2-0 record and .895 save percentage through nine games. Those numbers pale in comparison to rookie starter Jacob Fowler, who has 10 wins, three shutouts, and a .919 save percentage in 15 games. Recalling the veteran Kahkonen will allow Montreal to keep Fowler in a starting net with three games ahead this week.
Kahkonen has fallen down the depth chart, but still brings plenty of experience to the fill-in role. He has appeared in 140 games across seven NHL seasons. That includes a nightly backup role through two years with the Minnesota Wild, and two years with the San Jose Sharks, between 2020 and 2024. He routinely eclipsed a .900 save percentage through his first five seasons in the NHL. That includes a .913 save percentage in 36 games of the 2021-22 season, which he split between Minnesota and San Jose. His performance fell off with a move to the Colorado Avalanche last season, landing him in a routine AHL role. That role has now stretched across four AHL clubs – three last season, then a move to Laval this year. He isn’t likely to curb the slow years on this recall, but should offer a steady hand if the Canadiens need it.
Lightning, Flyers Swap Roman Schmidt, Ethan Samson
The Tampa Bay Lightning and Philadelphia Flyers have swapped minor-league defenseman. Tampa Bay has sent Roman Schmidt to Philadelphia in exchange for Ethan Samson. Schmidt is in his second season in the AHL, while Samson is in his third.
This move swaps an imposing, physical defender for a more mobile, two-way option. Schmidt stands at 6-foot-5 and 215-pounds. He uses that heft, and a long reach, to shut down entry into the defensive zone and control space in front of his own net. That focus has held Schmidt to just one point in 13 games this season and six points in 62 career AHL games. He has led the Syrcause Crunch in penalty minutes in each of the last two seasons – with 38 PIMs this year and 79 PIMs in 49 games last year. Tampa Bay originally drafted Schmidt in the third round of the 2021 NHL Draft, out of the U.S. National Team Development Program.
Samson has offered a bit more offense through his AHL career. He has four assists, and only four penalty minutes, in 10 games this season – after missing the start of the year due to a training camp injury. He’s continued to offer a physical and engaged presence on defense, with a bit more downhill drive with the puck on his stick. He has 40 points, a minus-19, and 100 PIMs in 142 career AHL games. The Flyers drafted Samson three rounds after Schmidt in 2021 from the WHL’s Prince George Cougars.
This move will provide the Flyers with a bit more grit behind a young depth chart filled with skill-first players. Meanwhile, Tampa Bay will look to bank on Samson’s upside. The Lightning are no strangers to rewarding AHL defenders on NHL contracts. They have had 10 different defenders appear in NHL games this season and briefly had Schmidt on their roster, though he didn’t make his NHL debut.
Blues Recall Hugh McGing
The St. Louis Blues have recalled center Hugh McGing with their open roster spot. He will join the Blues with three games ahead of them this week. McGing has six points, 25 penalty minutes, and a minus-seven in 18 games with the AHL’s Springfield Thunderbirds this season.
McGing has been near the top of St. Louis’ call-up sheet since 2022. He has appearead in six NHL games in that span, with no scoring, no penalties, and a minus-five. He brings a hard-working energy to the bottom of the lineup. Despite his 5-foot-8 frame, McGing isn’t afraid to get involved with puck battles in the corners or in front of the net. That grit has earned him a key role as Springfield’s third-line center. He has also appeared on the team’s penalty-kill.
The Blues will be looking for any help they can to keep their recent hot streak going. They have won their last two games by a combined score of 6-4 – after losing eight of their previous 11 games. The Blues face two of the top 15 offenses in the league through their next five games in Boston (ranked seventh in goals-for) and Chicago (ranked 14th). They’ll get a bit of respite with two matches against the Nashville Predators, who are one of only five teams with fewer goals than the Blues this season.
McGing will offer an alternative for Matt Luff, who made his Blues debut on Suunday. Luff recorded one hit, two shot blocks, and a minus-one in eight minutes of ice time.
Canucks Activate Nils Hoglander From LTIR
The Canucks are activating winger Nils Höglander from long-term injured reserve prior to tonight’s game against the Red Wings, head coach Adam Foote told reporters (including Randip Janda of Sportsnet 650). The active roster had a vacancy due to winger Jonathan Lekkerimäki being reassigned to AHL Abbotsford yesterday.
Hoglander, 25 later this month, will be making his season debut to kick off his sixth campaign in Vancouver. The 2019 second-round pick sustained a lower-body injury early in the preseason and has been listed as week-to-week ever since.
It ended up being well over two months on the sidelines for Höglander, who was shifted to LTIR in late October. The Canucks are exceeding the cap by $1.64MM but still have defenseman Derek Forbort on LTIR, providing $2MM of relief, so they’re still in the clear.
The 5’9″ winger returns to the ice hoping to prove last season’s performance was a fluke. In 2023-24, he was a highly valuable Swiss Army knife for the ‘Nucks as he broke out for 24 goals and 36 points, helping them along to their first division title in 11 years. Last season, his production dropped off to just eight goals and 25 points in 72 appearances. Some regression was expected after he finished at a 20% rate the year prior, just as some improvement should be expected on the 9.6% mark his shooting percentage cratered to last season.
His return couldn’t come at a better time for the Canucks, who have Teddy Blueger and Filip Chytil on injured reserve while leading point-getter Elias Pettersson is ticketed to miss his second straight game with an upper-body injury. Still, he’s expected to be nursed back into the lineup in a fourth-line role, per Brendan Batchelor of Sportsnet 650, perhaps an indication that he’s cleared to play but not quite 100% yet.
Panthers Reassign Jack Devine
The Panthers announced this afternoon that forward Jack Devine has been assigned to AHL Charlotte. That clears an active roster spot, one that could be used to activate star winger Matthew Tkachuk from long-term injured reserve in the coming days. Nearly two weeks have passed since he started skating again following offseason groin surgery.
If that’s the case, Florida isn’t done making roster moves. With Devine off the roster, they’re exceeding the cap by $7.24MM. They’re compliant because that’s less than their LTIR pool of $9.52MM. That pool will shrink to $5.7MM when Tkachuk is activated, though. That’s a $1.54MM difference they need to make up for. They’ll likely do so by shifting forwards Jonah Gadjovich and Cole Schwindt from standard IR to LTIR. They carry a combined cap hit of $1.6MM, increasing their LTIR pool by just enough to carry Tkachuk on the active roster without making any other changes to the roster.
Devine is in his first professional season and still has three years or 64 NHL games played remaining until he’ll require waivers to head to the minors, so that’s not a concern anytime soon. He’s the only waiver-exempt player on the roster aside from lineup fixture Mackie Samoskevich, so that made his reassignment more or less inevitable as Florida got healthier.
The right-shooting Devine had been out of the lineup as a healthy scratch in three consecutive games. He didn’t manage a point in six appearances since being recalled from Charlotte on Nov. 18. His possession numbers are solid enough, but he was deployed in extremely sheltered usage and had a -3 rating while averaging only 8:26 of ice time per game.
Florida drafted Devine with the fifth-to-last pick of the 2022 draft. He’s been on an upward trajectory ever since and turned pro this year on the heels of back-to-back 50-point seasons at the University of Denver, where he totaled a 57-106–163 scoring line in 162 collegiate appearances across four years. He won two national championships with the Pioneers and was the top scorer in college hockey with 57 points in 2024-25, finishing as a finalist for the Hobey Baker Award for the second year in a row.
His offensive success in the NCAA has followed him to the pros, just not yet to the NHL. He rattled off six goals and 12 points through his first 13 games with Charlotte before getting called up. He was the team’s leading scorer when he was removed from the roster last month and should reclaim that title soon enough as he’s in for an extended stint – potentially the rest of the season – down in the AHL after a quiet first stint on the Cats’ roster.
Lightning Place Andrei Vasilevskiy On IR, Activate Brayden Point
3:44 p.m.: The corresponding move for Vasilevskiy’s IR placement is an IR activation for top center Brayden Point, per Erlendsson. The snakebitten pivot had missed the last seven games due to an undisclosed injury he sustained against the Capitals on Nov. 22. He’s hoping the time off jumpstarts a reset – the four-time 40-goal scorer had managed just three tallies through 21 games while shooting at a disastrous 6.8% clip, less than half his previous career low.
10:16 a.m.: According to Erik Erlendsson of Lightning Insider, the Tampa Bay Lightning have placed netminder Andrei Vasilevskiy on the team’s injured reserve. Having recalled Brandon Halverson a few days ago, any corresponding roster move, if any, will likely involve a forward or defenseman.
Vasilveskiy has already missed two games due to an undisclosed injury, and it’s now a guarantee he’ll miss at least two more. Since his last contest came last Tuesday against the New York Islanders, the 12-year veteran will only be eligible for activation after Tampa Bay’s matchup tomorrow against the Montreal Canadiens.
Unlike some of their injuries on defense, the Lightning haven’t fared as well without their former Vezina Trophy-winning netminder. Tampa Bay lost both games last week without Vasilevskiy (as well as his most recent start against the Islanders), allowing six goals on 50 shots for an .880 SV%.
Assuming that the Lightning will want to avoid overworking Jonas Johansson in their upcoming back-to-back against the Toronto Maple Leafs and Montreal, Vasilevskiy’s IR placement all but guarantees that Halvorsen will make his first appearance of the year. The 29-year-old netminer has managed a 9-4-0 record in 13 games with the Syracuse Crunch this season with a .901 SV%.
Fortunately, it doesn’t sound like Vasilevskiy will be out for too long. There was some speculation last week that Vasilevskiy was targeting today for his return, meaning that he may return by Thursday when the Lightning take on the Devils in New Jersey.
Blackhawks Reassign Sam Rinzel, Landon Slaggert
The Blackhawks have reassigned defenseman Sam Rinzel and winger Landon Slaggert to AHL Rockford, per Charlie Roumeliotis of WGN Radio 720. Both players are still waiver-exempt.
Slaggert’s demotion was expected. He’s been sent down once already this season and has been a healthy scratch in eight of Chicago’s last 10 games. Rinzel’s, however, comes as a surprise.
A first-round pick straight out of the Minnesota high school ranks in 2022, Rinzel was viewed as one of the higher-ceiling offensive defenders in the class but would need plenty of developmental runway to improve his overall game. The 6’4″ righty seemed to put most of the pieces together during the last two years with the University of Minnesota. He racked up a 12-48–60 scoring line in 79 games with a +43 rating. Not only was he a Big Ten First Team All-Star last year, but he was also named the conference’s Defensive Player of the Year.
Rinzel’s performance down the stretch last season for the Blackhawks after his collegiate campaign ended only added more fuel to his stock. Chicago deployed him in a top-pairing role with Alex Vlasic for their final nine games, and the results were fantastic. Rinzel rattled off five assists and a +1 rating while averaging 23:22 of ice time per game, getting an audition on the Hawks’ top power-play unit after Seth Jones was traded weeks earlier. He and Vlasic also controlled 50% of expected goals at 5-on-5, the only Blackhawks defense pair to break even with over 100 minutes of ice time last year, per MoneyPuck.
This season, however, there have been significant growing pains. Rinzel started back in that top-pairing job with Vlasic and skated over 25 minutes twice in the Hawks’ first three games. Since then, he’s only broken the 20-minute plateau three times and not since Oct. 26. He’s remained in the lineup all this time as Chicago has dressed seven defensemen for the majority of the campaign, but he was healthy scratched once on Nov. 15 against the Maple Leafs. Since returning to the lineup, he’s managed five assists in 11 games – all at even strength – but is only averaging 14:36 of ice time per game.
The reduced usage has come as a result of some warts popping up in Rinzel’s defensive game. Rinzel’s offensive zone start percentage at 5-on-5 is 55.4, ninth on the team (min. 50 minutes). Despite that, the Blackhawks are allowing more shots per 60 minutes with Rinzel on the ice (34.2) than any other player on the roster. The same goes for shot attempts (68.3), and his 33.4 scoring chances against per 60 are the worst among defensemen.
He’ll now get some time to clean up his game in Rockford. Given Chicago’s frequent juggling of defense pairs this season, a strong run of play means he could find himself back on the roster in fairly short order – particularly if they start listening to calls on pending unrestricted free agents Matt Grzelcyk and Connor Murphy closer to the trade deadline.
It’s too early to read into how Rinzel’s demotion will affect head coach Jeff Blashill’s propensity to ice 11 forwards and seven defenders this season. Chicago didn’t fill its newly open roster spots in corresponding moves today because they’re off until Wednesday, following a dreadful weekend in Southern California, losing back-to-back games against the Kings and Ducks by a combined score of 13-1. Those losses brought their record in their last 10 games down to 2-6-2, although their hot start means they’re still one game above .500 and one point back of the Mammoth for the second wild card spot in the West as they approach the 30-game mark.
As for Slaggert, he’s been most often used as an extra forward on the NHL roster this season, a consequence of fewer jobs being available to the forward group than normal. The 23-year-old has entered the lineup on 10 occasions with one goal on five shots and an even rating. He’s averaged just 9:04 of ice time per game after seeing over 12 minutes in 33 appearances last season.
Image courtesy of Kamil Krzaczynski-Imagn Images.