Nathan Beaulieu Announces Retirement
Former first-round pick Nathan Beaulieu has announced his retirement from professional hockey, according to the NHLPA.
Beaulieu, 32, hangs up his skates after playing 471 NHL games for the Canadiens, Sabres, Jets, and Ducks. The longtime bottom-pairing defenseman last appeared with Anaheim in the 2022-23 season, spending the last two campaigns in Europe but playing sparingly due to injuries.
The Ontario native was the No. 17 overall pick of the 2011 draft by Montreal from the QMJHL’s Saint John Sea Dogs after helping guide the team to a Memorial Cup championship and being named to the tournament’s All-Star team. He was a tantalizing junior prospect, never outright dominating offensively but still putting up strong point production with dominant defensive impacts while playing a highly physical brand of hockey.
While his physicality translated to the professional level, the other parts of his game only did so in short bursts. Beaulieu only ever topped 20 points in a season once, making a career-high 74 appearances for Montreal in 2016-17 while receiving significant power-play deployment for the only time in his career. He averaged 19:29 per game for the Habs that year, putting together a 4-24–28 scoring line with 102 blocks.
Aside from that, he was still a serviceable bottom-pairing piece for the Habs for a few years after emerging as a full-time NHLer in 2014-15. He ended up recording 60 points and a +19 rating in 225 games for the team that drafted him before he was traded to the Sabres in the 2017 offseason.
After the trade, Beaulieu was firmly relegated to being a No. 7 option. He never made more than 60 appearances in a season after that relative breakout of a 2016-17 campaign, averaging 15:27 per game for Buffalo, Winnipeg, and Anaheim over his final six NHL seasons.
Beaulieu’s final NHL season saw him thrown to the wolves on a severely understaffed Ducks defense in 2022-23, recording four points and a -23 rating in 52 games with ghastly possession numbers. That tanked his value the following summer and led to his move overseas to Switzerland’s EHC Kloten, where he only had two points in 13 games before a hand injury ended his season.
The veteran lefty signed on with Barys Astana of the KHL for 2024-25, but was released after eight games with financial issues forcing the club to part ways with all of its import players. He quickly landed with HC Nove Zamky of the Slovak Extraliga but did not make an appearance for them due to injury.
Beaulieu finishes his career with 12 goals, 86 assists, 98 points, and a -14 rating in 471 regular-season games while averaging 16:18 per night. He also had five points in 21 playoff games with Montreal and Winnipeg. All of us at PHR wish him the best in retirement.
John Ludvig Signs In Czechia
Free agent defenseman John Ludvig has signed with Czech Extraliga club HC Dynamo Pardubice, the team announced Wednesday. It’s a three-year deal, keeping him with the club through 2027-28. It’s the expected result after a report back in May linked Ludvig to the six-time Extraliga champions.
Ludvig, 24, spent last season with the Avalanche after they claimed him off waivers from the Penguins at the beginning of the season. A third-round pick of the Panthers in 2019, Ludvig signed a two-year, two-way deal to remain in the Florida organization in 2023 but never played a game for them under that contract, instead getting claimed off waivers by Pittsburgh during the following training camp.
While Ludvig was a consistent No. 6/7 option for the Pens in 2023-24 when healthy, he didn’t get the same usage in a deeper Colorado depth chart. He made only eight NHL appearances for the Avs after seeing 33 games of action for Pittsburgh the year before, serving as a frequent healthy scratch before landing back on waivers in January. That time, he cleared successfully and spent the remainder of the season with the AHL’s Colorado Eagles.
He would have still been under Avalanche control, but they opted not to issue him a qualifying offer last month, making him an unrestricted free agent. He now heads overseas to the club where his father, former Devils and Sabres winger Jan Ludvig, works as a skills coach.
The 6’1″, 214-lb lefty was a strong two-way threat in juniors with the WHL’s Portland Winterhawks and carries a physical edge, but he’d likely reached his ceiling as an NHL extra – particularly since the pandemic rushed him into pro hockey a year early and robbed him of development time.
Ludvig is a Canadian citizen but was born in Czechia, therefore he doesn’t count as an import signing for Pardubice. He hits pause on his NHL career for now with three goals, four assists, seven points, a -16 rating, 53 PIMs, and a 49.7 CF% in 41 appearances, averaging 12:02 per game when dressed.
He joins a Pardubice roster that boasts over 1,100 games of NHL experience thanks to veteran names like Vladimir Sobotka, Lukas Sedlak, Libor Hajek, and Jakub Zboril. The club has played exclusively in the top Czech or Czechoslovak league since records began, dating back to the 1937-38 campaign, and has made the Extraliga final in back-to-back seasons, losing both times.
Charles Hudon Signs With Djurgardens IF
July 23: Djurgarden officially announced Hudon’s signing this morning. It’s a two-year contract, keeping him with the club through the 2026-27 season.
July 22: Minor-league scoring winger Charles Hudon is heading overseas for the second time in his career. Expressen’s Johan Svensson relays that the veteran forward is expected to join Djurgardens IF of the Swedish Hockey League in the coming days.
Hudon, 31, hasn’t been on an NHL contract or played an NHL game since going pointless in nine appearances with the Avalanche in 2022-23. He’s spent the last two seasons with the Kings’ AHL affiliate, the Ontario Reign, on a minor-league deal.
In Ontario, the 5’10” Hudon has continued to produce at an elite level, clicking at nearly a point per game with a 40-78–118 scoring line in 123 games. A fifth-round pick in 2012 by the Canadiens, Hudon has always been an electric scorer at the AHL level, posting 426 points in 503 games there in parts of nine seasons, but has rarely managed to stick around in an NHL lineup despite playing a physical game and logging average possession impacts when given the chance.
Hudon has 134 NHL games to his name, 125 of which came with Montreal. More than half of those were as a 23-year-old in the 2017-18 campaign, when he recorded a career-high 10 goals, 20 assists, and 30 points in 72 games for the Habs while averaging 14:02 per contest. He didn’t stick around in a top-nine role the following year, though, only scoring five points in 32 games before essentially falling off the NHL radar.
The Quebec native last played in Europe during the COVID-laced 2020-21 campaign, scoring 32 points in 33 games for Switzerland’s Lausanne HC. He’ll now join a Djurgarden team looking to make waves in the SHL after gaining promotion from the second-tier HockeyAllsvenskan.
West Notes: Rossi, Patera, Johansen
Center Marco Rossi is one of the more prominent remaining restricted free agents around the league. Michael Russo of The Athletic recently was on the DFO Rundown (video link) and reported that the two sides aren’t believed to have spoken in the last few weeks, effectively playing a game of chicken. Rossi is believed to be seeking a long-term contract while the Wild’s preference is a bridge deal, something that Rossi is hesitant to sign after being dropped to the fourth line in the playoffs. An offer sheet is still potentially an option if another team steps up and presents the offer that Rossi’s cap is looking for but this could be a case where he remains unsigned until closer to training camp with the waiting game in full effect on both sides.
Elsewhere out West:
- The Canucks plan to have prospects Nikita Tolopilo and Ty Young as the AHL tandem for next season, notes Thomas Drance of The Athletic (subscription link). They also have prospect Aku Koskenvuo who is likely to start in the ECHL. With Thatcher Demko and Kevin Lankinen entrenched as the tandem in Vancouver, that has Jiri Patera as the odd man out. Patera has NHL experience but was limited to just seven games last season. Drance relays that the Canucks are still determining where they plan to assign the 26-year-old next season assuming he clears waivers which suggests that a loan (or trade) outside the organization could be coming.
- Defenseman Lucas Johansen has signed a one-year deal with AHL Henderson, per a team release. The 27-year-old spent last season with the affiliate of the Golden Knights, but was limited to just 38 games where he had 11 assists and 28 penalty minutes. Johansen was a first-round pick by Washington back in 2016, going 28th overall but has played in just nine career NHL games over parts of three seasons, collecting a pair of assists.
Brett Leason Receiving KHL Interest
A later entrant to this year’s UFA market, Brett Leason hasn’t been able to secure a contract in the first three weeks of free agency. But while the NHL interest might not be materializing, it appears he may have some options in Russia, as Sport-Express’s Artur Khairullin reports (Telegram link) that the winger is of interest to some KHL clubs. It’s unclear if the interest is mutual or if Leason’s intention is to remain in North America next season.
The 25-year-old spent the last three seasons with Anaheim after they claimed him off waivers from Washington in 2022. In 2023-24, Leason had a career year, notching 11 goals and 11 assists in 68 games. The Ducks non-tendered him to avoid giving him arbitration rights but quickly re-signed him to a one-year, $1.05MM contract.
However, last season didn’t go anywhere near as well for Leason. He was quieter offensively, putting up just five goals with a dozen assists in 62 games while still averaging around 13 minutes a night of action. Meanwhile, he was a healthy scratch for the other 20. Unsurprisingly, with Leason still being arbitration-eligible, he was non-tendered once again last month.
This time, there wasn’t a quick contract to be landed. But Leason, a six-foot-five winger, has been primarily deployed in a defensive role over the last couple of years and has logged regular minutes on the penalty kill which could make him worthy of consideration for some teams heading into training camp. Speculatively, Leason is the type of player that teams will likely look to bring in on a PTO. But if he wants something guaranteed before then, it looks like he may have some KHL options on the table.
Metropolitan Notes: Mantha, Chinakhov, Martone
While the Penguins are known to be selling, they did make an intriguing addition in free agency earlier this month as they signed winger Anthony Mantha to a one-year, $2.5MM contract with another $2MM in bonuses tied to games played. Speaking with reporters yesterday including Matt Vensel of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, the 30-year-old indicated that he has fully recovered from the torn ACL that ended his 2024-25 campaign after just 13 games. Mantha also noted that Pittsburgh showed interest in him last summer but he ultimately signed a one-year, $3.5MM pact with Calgary. With 303 points in 507 career NHL games, Mantha, if healthy, could be an intriguing piece for the Penguins next season, both as a player and a potential trade candidate.
More from the Metropolitan:
- For the second straight summer, the Blue Jackets are dealing with a public trade request. While there wasn’t much of a market for Patrik Laine a year ago, Brian Hedger of the Columbus Dispatch opines that this shouldn’t be the case this time around when it comes to winger Yegor Chinakhov, who made his request public last week. With Chinakhov making a much more affordable $2.1MM (compared to Laine’s $8.7MM) and being on the final year of his contract, he should have a decent market, one that should allow Columbus to land an NHL-proven piece coming the other way.
- After committing to play for Michigan State yesterday, Flyers prospect Porter Martone will not be attending training camp in the fall, GM Daniel Briere acknowledged to Kevin Kurz of The Athletic (subscription link). Martone was the sixth overall selection in the draft last month but decided the best thing for his development would be to go to college, a decision he kept Philadelphia informed about along the way. Martone could theoretically still make his NHL debut next season as he’d be a potential candidate to sign once his season with the Spartans comes to an end.
Kraken Sign Kaapo Kakko To Three-Year Contract
Earlier today, the dates for the seven remaining arbitration-eligible players were revealed. However, one player who won’t need that hearing after all is Kraken winger Kaapo Kakko. The team announced that they’ve reached an agreement on a three-year contract that will pay $4.525MM per season after being set to exchange arbitration figures on Wednesday. GM Jason Botterill released the following statement:
Getting a contract done with Kaapo was a top priority this summer. We knew quickly he’d be a big part of our team moving forward. He’s got size, skill and tremendous playmaking ability, and isn’t afraid of going to the net. He fit in immediately with our group, and we’re thrilled to have him under contract.
The 24-year-old was the second overall selection back in 2019 by the Rangers and had seemingly been on thin ice in New York for a couple of years. The two sides agreed on a one-year, $2.4MM contract last offseason, well before qualifying offers were due to be submitted, avoiding any risk of the Rangers non-tendering him to avoid arbitration rights.
The deal seemingly represented a last-chance opportunity for Kakko and it’s fair to say he didn’t make the most of it. He managed just four goals and 10 assists in 30 games with New York and in December, the Rangers pulled the trigger on a trade, sending him to Seattle for defenseman Will Borgen, a 2025 third-round pick, and a 2026 sixth-round selection.
The change of scenery seemed to give Kakko a boost. He averaged just under a point per game over his first month with the Kraken and overall, he picked up 10 goals and 20 assists in 49 outings. Combining his stats with New York, Kakko’s 44 points represented a career high, giving him some leverage heading into contract talks this summer.
Considering that Kakko’s career numbers of 71 goals and 90 assists in 379 games is rather pedestrian, Jason Botterill is clearly banking on Kakko’s second-half production being a sign of things to come. He got the bigger role he was hoping for following the swap, logging a little over 17 minutes a night of playing time after averaging just over 13 minutes a night prior to the swap. It’s clear that, based on this deal, Seattle feels that Kakko can be a legitimate top-six forward for them moving forward.
Beyond his entry-level contract, this is the longest agreement that Kakko has signed. It’s a pact that buys out his first two UFA-eligible seasons, giving the Kraken a longer look at him. It will also allow Kakko to potentially reach the open market at 27 in 2028, putting him in a position to possibly secure a long-term, big-money agreement if he’s able to maintain and build off his strong first half-season with Seattle.
With the signing, the Kraken now have a little under $6.5MM in cap space, per PuckPedia. They still have one key restricted free agent to sign in defenseman Ryker Evans. He’s not arbitration-eligible but Botterill should have enough flexibility to sign him to a long-term agreement if the sides can work one out.
Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman was first to report the signing.
Photo courtesy of Walter Tychnowicz-Imagn Images.
AHL, ECHL Affiliations For 2025-26
There haven’t been many affiliation changes between NHL clubs and their minor-league feeders from last season to the upcoming campaign. There are no affiliate swaps to report, but the ECHL’s continued expansion has shifted the picture slightly as the Double-A league looks to eventually match its NHL and AHL parents in size at 32 teams apiece. Incoming are the Greensboro Gargoyles for 2025-26, who will give the ECHL 30 member clubs and will become the Hurricanes’ full-time second-tier affiliate after they split the Bloomington Bison with the Rangers last season.
That leaves just the Blue Jackets and Senators without a dedicated ECHL team for their AHL club to work with. Here’s the full list of every club’s minor-league affiliates for the 2025-26 season:
Anaheim Ducks
AHL: San Diego Gulls
ECHL: Tulsa Oilers
Boston Bruins
AHL: Providence Bruins
ECHL: Maine Mariners
Buffalo Sabres
AHL: Rochester Americans
ECHL: Jacksonville Icemen
Calgary Flames
AHL: Calgary Wranglers
ECHL: Rapid City Rush
Carolina Hurricanes
AHL: Chicago Wolves
ECHL: Greensboro Gargoyles
Chicago Blackhawks
AHL: Rockford IceHogs
ECHL: Indy Fuel
Colorado Avalanche
AHL: Colorado Eagles
ECHL: Utah Grizzlies
Columbus Blue Jackets
AHL: Cleveland Monsters
ECHL: n/a
Dallas Stars
AHL: Texas Stars
ECHL: Idaho Steelheads
Detroit Red Wings
AHL: Grand Rapids Griffins
ECHL: Toledo Walleye
Edmonton Oilers
AHL: Bakersfield Condors
ECHL: Fort Wayne Komets
Florida Panthers
AHL: Charlotte Checkers
ECHL: Savannah Ghost Pirates
Los Angeles Kings
AHL: Ontario Reign
ECHL: Greenville Swamp Rabbits
Minnesota Wild
AHL: Iowa Wild
ECHL: Iowa Heartlanders
Montreal Canadiens
AHL: Laval Rocket
ECHL: Trois-Rivieres Lions
Nashville Predators
AHL: Milwaukee Admirals
ECHL: Atlanta Gladiators
New Jersey Devils
AHL: Utica Comets
ECHL: Adirondack Thunder
New York Islanders
AHL: Bridgeport Islanders
ECHL: Worcester Railers
New York Rangers
AHL: Hartford Wolf Pack
ECHL: Bloomington Bison
Ottawa Senators
AHL: Belleville Senators
ECHL: n/a
Philadelphia Flyers
AHL: Lehigh Valley Phantoms
ECHL: Reading Royals
Pittsburgh Penguins
AHL: Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins
ECHL: Wheeling Nailers
San Jose Sharks
AHL: San Jose Barracuda
ECHL: Wichita Thunder
Seattle Kraken
AHL: Coachella Valley Firebirds
ECHL: Kansas City Mavericks
St. Louis Blues
AHL: Springfield Thunderbirds
ECHL: Florida Everblades
Tampa Bay Lightning
AHL: Syracuse Crunch
ECHL: Orlando Solar Bears
Toronto Maple Leafs
AHL: Toronto Marlies
ECHL: Cincinnati Cyclones
Utah Mammoth
AHL: Tucson Roadrunners
ECHL: Allen Americans
Vancouver Canucks
AHL: Abbotsford Canucks
ECHL: Kalamazoo Wings
Vegas Golden Knights
AHL: Henderson Silver Knights
ECHL: Tahoe Knight Monsters
Washington Capitals
AHL: Hershey Bears
ECHL: South Carolina Stingrays
Winnipeg Jets
AHL: Manitoba Moose
ECHL: Norfolk Admirals
Kevin Labanc Linked To CSKA Moscow
July 22: While Labanc may have CSKA’s interest, it doesn’t appear to be mutual. His agent, Mike Curran, tells Sheng Peng of San Jose Hockey Now that his client isn’t considering KHL offers and is fully healthy after last season’s shoulder surgery.
July 21: Free agent winger Kevin Labanc is attracting the interest of KHL club CSKA Moscow, as relayed by BelarusHockey.com.
Labanc, 29, has had a truly tumultuous couple of seasons. He once looked like a potential long-term top-six piece with the Sharks, but offensive struggles led to him walking as an unrestricted free agent last summer.
His poor platform season with San Jose (2-7–9 in 46 GP) predictably meant Labanc yielded little interest on the open market, forcing him to settle for professional tryout offers. He landed one from the Devils that led to an NHL contract, just not with New Jersey.
Instead, Labanc signed a one-year, league-minimum contract with the Blue Jackets shortly before the last season began. Initially, it looked like things were going well for Labanc to rehab his image as an everyday NHLer. He did well as a depth forward for Columbus, averaging a career-low 10:30 per game but still managing 12 points in 34 outings, better than the low production floor he’d hit in the Bay Area in previous years.
Then, he required shoulder surgery in February, ending his campaign. That limited his ability to extend his sample and means over the last two NHL seasons, he’s still only scored four goals and 21 points in 80 games – all the while finishing at a quite low 4.2% rate.
For a player known for his scoring upside, those underwhelming numbers overshadow the largely positive possession impacts he had in more of a two-way role with the Jackets last season. Labanc had a plus rating for the first time since his rookie season nine years ago, and the 5’11” winger had the shot attempt and possession quality numbers at even strength to back it up.
Unfortunately, that doesn’t look like it’ll be enough to land him anything more than a two-way contract or another NHL PTO offer as the offseason stretches into August or September. As such, overseas clubs, including CSKA, are beginning to add him to their list of targets.
CSKA already has nearly 800 games’ worth of NHL experience on its roster for 2025-26, mainly stemming from winger Denis Gurianov and defensemen Nikita Nesterov and Nikita Okhotyuk.
Slovakia Names Vladimir Orszagh Head Coach For 2026 Olympics
Former NHLer Vladimir Orszagh will be behind the bench for Slovakia at next year’s Winter Olympics, according to an NHL.com release today.
For Orszagh, it’s essentially a removal of an interim tag. He took over midway through last year’s international cycle after Craig Ramsay, who had been at the head of the Slovak program since the 2017-18 season, contracted pneumonia.
Ramsay had coached Slovakia to a bronze medal at the 2022 Winter Olympics with no NHL involvement, so Orszagh has some significant shoes to fill. The 48-year-old was a fifth-round pick of the Islanders back in 1995 and ended up recording 54 goals and 119 points in 289 career NHL games with them, the Predators, and the Blues between 1997 and 2006.
He played sparingly after leaving St. Louis, but did log a few appearances for Slovak club HC Banska Bystrica. He finally hung up his skates in 2010, following his second comeback attempt. Orszagh immediately began building his coaching resume, serving as an assistant for Banska Bystrica for two years before taking over as their head coach for the 2012-13 season.
He departed in 2014-15 to serve as an assistant for the short-lived KHL club HC Slovan Bratislava but returned to Banska Bystrica after one year, leading them to back-to-back Slovak Extraliga titles in 2017 and 2018. He also won back-to-back Czech Extraliga titles as an assistant for HC Ocelari Trinec in 2023 and 2024 before returning to Banska Bystrica, where he’s now in his third stint as the club’s head coach.
Orszagh was not on Ramsay’s staff for the 2022 medal, but he did serve as an assistant coach on their 2014 and 2018 Olympic teams. At this year’s World Championship, Slovakia, under Orszagh, finished sixth in Group A with a 2-4-1 record and did not advance to the playoffs.
Slovakia named five NHLers – Erik Cernak, Martin Fehervary, Simon Nemec, Martin Pospisil, and Juraj Slafkovsky – to its preliminary roster in June, along with longtime NHLer Tomas Tatar, who will play this season in Switzerland’s National League. They’ll likely be accompanied by some high-profile youngsters like recent first-round picks Dalibor Dvorsky (Blues) and Samuel Honzek (Flames) when the final rosters are released.