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Bob Murdoch Passes Away

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Longtime former NHL player and coach Bob Murdoch has passed away at the age of 76 after a four-year battle with Lewy Body Dementia, Parkinsonism, and Alzheimer’s, the NHL Alumni Association said today. Murdoch spent the first three seasons of his career with the Montreal Canadiens from 1970 to 1973 before he was traded to the Los Angeles Kings, where he would play until 1979. He was traded again to the Atlanta Flames, the franchise with which he would finish out his NHL career, retiring in 1982 after staying with the team during their move to Calgary.

Murdoch then spent a decade in the NHL as a coach with the Flames, Chicago Blackhawks, Winnipeg Jets, and San Jose Sharks. His stints with Chicago and Winnipeg were in head coaching roles, and he won a Jack Adams award in his first season with the Jets in 1989-90 after the team made a 21-point jump in the standings from the prior season.

Undrafted, Murdoch made his way to Montreal at 24 after playing for the Canadian national team and in the minors for the Montreal Voyageurs of AHL. While his role with the team was limited in the first two of his three seasons there, he did suit up in the postseason for Montreal’s Stanley Cup victories in 1971 and 1973. After a breakout year in 1972-73, recording 24 points in 69 games, he garnered a first-round pick on the trade market and was shipped to the Kings.

Murdoch had the best years of his career in California, consistently posting double-digit point totals and playing a strong brand of physical, two-way hockey. In 1974-75, he recorded career highs across the board with 13 goals, 29 assists, 42 points, a +39 rating, and 116 penalty minutes in 80 games. He earned year-end All-Star team consideration that year.

After retiring and then leaving the NHL coaching circle in 1993, Murdoch headed overseas, where he coached in Germany. He lasted just half a season with Mad Dogs München in 1994-95 but immediately found a new job in the DEL with Kölner Haie, where he stayed until 1997. He followed that up with a three-year stint behind the bench of the Nürnberg Ice Tigers from 1999 to 2002. Most recently, he served as a scout for the WHL’s Tri-City Americans from 2013 to 2015.

We at PHR send our condolences to Murdoch’s family, friends, and former teammates.

“Clarity” On Erik Karlsson Trade Could Come This Weekend

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The Pittsburgh Penguins could finally be inching closer to landing defenseman Erik Karlsson with a second buyout window opening for the team this weekend. The pursuit of Karlsson by the Penguins, Carolina Hurricanes and others has been a dominant storyline for the past two months, and now there’s a sense that some clarity might be on the horizon, Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman said on NHL Network yesterday.

Now armed with some additional salary cap flexibility thanks to Jake Guentzel’s ankle injury that should place him on LTIR for the first month of the season, the Penguins have more dice to roll in regard to a Karlsson deal. The team could also free up more space through that second buyout window, using one on someone like Mikael Granlund, who’s locked in at a $5MM AAV for two more seasons. It would be a change in pace for GM Kyle Dubas, though, who’s expressed publically he’s hesitant to go the buyout route. As GM of the Toronto Maple Leafs, he offloaded a first-round pick for the Carolina Hurricanes to take and buy out the final season of Patrick Marleau’s contract in 2019.

That being said, there aren’t a whole lot of other options for the Penguins to free up enough space to make a deal unless the Sharks are willing to take on a bad contract or two in return. The latter is unlikely, given they’re undoubtedly going to retain more salary than they’re comfortable with to facilitate a Karlsson trade. With Friedman hearing there’s increased activity this week on the Penguins/Karlsson train, it’s not hard to connect the dots on Dubas’ potential cap-clearing plans.

While the list of teams connected to Karlsson is largely public knowledge at this point, what a potential deal could look like isn’t. It’s been reported multiple times that San Jose will likely have to retain at least $3.5MM of Karlsson’s $11MM cap hit for four more seasons to move him out, but other than that, it’s anyone’s guess as to what amount of roster players, picks, and prospects it’ll take to win a bidding war for last year’s Norris Trophy winner.

Speculatively, one player who could head to San Jose is 23-year-old defenseman Ty Smith. The 2018 17th-overall pick burst onto the scene with 23 points in just 48 games during his rookie season with the New Jersey Devils in 2020-21, but he struggled heavily on the defensive end of things the following season and was traded to Pittsburgh in 2022. He spent most of last season in the minors, only skating nine games with the Penguins, but he’ll need waivers to return there next season if he can’t find a spot in the NHL lineup. On a team with paper-thin defensive depth such as San Jose, he’d likely immediately factor in as a top-four threat.

It’s worth noting that Pittsburgh also has all six of their first- and second-round picks in the next three drafts.

Washington Capitals Sign Tom Wilson To Seven-Year Extension

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The Washington Capitals have re-signed winger Tom Wilson to a seven-year, $45.5MM extension, per a team announcement. The contract will kick in for the 2024-25 campaign and run through 2030-31, carrying a $6.5MM cap hit.

CapFriendly reports the full breakdown of Wilson’s deal, which carries a 15-team no-trade clause until 2027-28 and a ten-team no-trade clause for the remainder:

2024-25: $4MM salary, $5MM signing bonus
2025-26: $4.5MM salary, $3MM signing bonus
2026-27: $3.625MM salary, $2MM signing bonus
2027-28: $4.3MM salary, $2MM signing bonus
2028-29: $4.275MM salary, $2MM signing bonus
2029-30: $900K salary, $4.5MM signing bonus
2030-31: $900K salary, $4.5MM signing bonus

Signing a long-term deal puts Wilson in line to become one of the longest-tenured players in Washington’s history. Drafted 16th overall in 2012, the 29-year-old already has ten full seasons with Washington under his belt, a tenure that includes the franchise’s only Stanley Cup win in 2018.

It was after lifting the Stanley Cup that Wilson transformed into the player we know him as today, though. Since their victory, he’s become a fixture in the team’s top six, often playing the opposite wing on Alex Ovechkin’s line. He’s scored 98 goals in 289 games since 2018-19, the third-most of any Capital during that time behind Ovechkin and T.J. Oshie. Now routinely averaging top-six minutes at over 17 minutes a game, Wilson is giving the Capitals his best blend of goal-scoring while dialing his trademark physicality down to an acceptable level in his prime. In fact, he’s recorded under 100 penalty minutes for four straight seasons after finishing over the century mark six times to begin his career.

Last season was a tough one for Wilson, though, as it was for many of his teammates, with Washington missing the playoffs for the first time since 2014. His offensive pace was in line with what we’ve come to expect, but he played in just 33 games thanks to a knee injury that cost him the first half of the season. Still, he managed 13 goals and nine assists for 22 points after his return.

Wilson was entering the final season of a six-year, $31MM contract signed after Washington’s Cup win in 2018 – one that was heavily criticized at the time. It was viewed as a risky bet on Wilson’s potential rather than what he’d displayed up until that point. Although they were fair points then, Capitals general manager Brian MacLellan was quickly proven right – Wilson’s scored at least 20 goals in every season in which he’s been fully healthy since the deal kicked in. His new long-term extension will keep him in a Capitals jersey until age 37 and could very well be the last deal he ever signs.

That being said, Wilson’s style of play does not lend itself to longevity. Expecting him to be able to perform at his cap hit by the end of this contract is illogical, to say the least. There’s a strong chance his $6.5MM cap hit ends up on LTIR before the deal runs out. As CapFriendly notes, the lower salary with high signing bonuses in the final seasons of the deal also makes Wilson’s contract much harder to buy out should Washington need to go that route.

For now, CapFriendly projects Washington with $15.65MM in cap space for 2024-25, assuming an Upper Limit of 2024-25. They’ll have eight roster spots to fill with that money, though, a tough ask. It’s a rather tough financial position for a team teetering on the edge of competitiveness in Ovechkin’s twilight years.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Jake Guentzel Out Three Months After Ankle Surgery

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Pittsburgh Penguins winger Jake Guentzel underwent successful surgery on Wednesday to repair a lingering right ankle issue, general manager Kyle Dubas said in a statement today. The 2017 Stanley Cup champion will be re-evaluated in 12 weeks, meaning he’ll miss around the first month of the 2023-24 season.

Guentzel underwent his surgery in Minnesota, where he’d been playing summer-league hockey up until the procedure. Dubas said as Guentzel was ramping up preparation for training camp, “it was apparent that his ankle injury was not resolving in a way that was satisfactory to [him] or the Penguins.”

Financially, this is quite an important move for Pittsburgh. Guentzel’s timetable for a return means his $6MM cap hit is a candidate for LTIR to start the season, which would give the Penguins some more offseason cap flexibility as they try and position themselves to acquire top-flight defender Erik Karlsson from the San Jose Sharks.

Regardless of any potential ulterior motives at play, Guentzel is a two-time 40-goal scorer whose presence is invaluable for a team likely to be stuck in a tight Eastern Conference playoff race. Pittsburgh surely has no plans of missing the playoffs for a second straight year, and they’ll need Guentzel’s best after he returns from injury to stay ahead. In the meantime, they’ll rely on veteran addition Reilly Smith, a member of last year’s Stanley Cup-winning team with the Vegas Golden Knights, to shoulder some of Guentzel’s load. He’s the most likely candidate to slide up to first-line duties alongside Sidney Crosby and one of Rickard Rakell or Bryan Rust.

Guentzel has become synonymous with first-line duties on the Penguins throughout his seven-year career there, stapled to Crosby’s wing for much of his NHL time. He’s averaged over 20 minutes per game over the past four seasons, routinely producing around a point-per-game clip since breaking out for 40 goals and 76 points in 2018-19.

Unfortunately, this isn’t the first time Guentzel will miss a significant chunk of a season for injury-related reasons. He missed the last 30 games of the 2019-20 campaign thanks to a shoulder injury.

Notably, Guentzel’s injury guarantees them cap compliance to start the season, even if a Karlsson trade doesn’t pan out. The Penguins were more than $3MM over the cap after signing Drew O’Connor earlier this week, even if it was a slightly inflated figure thanks to three goalies currently on their NHL roster. Now, with Guentzel projected to land on LTIR to start the season, CapFriendly projects Pittsburgh to have roughly $2.75MM in space.

Latest On Trevor Zegras

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Yesterday, we issued an update on the 14 remaining unsigned RFAs league-wide after this year’s arbitration calendar wrapped up thanks to the Anaheim Ducks’ massive seven-year settlement with winger Troy Terry. The most glaring name on that unsigned list is Terry’s linemate, Trevor Zegras, who told NHL.com’s Dan Rosen yesterday he’s “hopeful” for a new contract soon but won’t return to Anaheim until a new deal is signed. He’s spent the offseason training in Connecticut, where he’ll remain for the time being.

Zegras offered no update, good or bad, on how close his camp was to an extension with Anaheim. He did infer that he hasn’t been personally involved much in contract talks, saying the negotiations are “kind of out of my control” and “this is why you have people in place to handle this type of stuff.” Zegras, 22, did not have the four professional seasons required under his belt to be eligible for arbitration this summer. He remains an RFA for the time being after his three-year, $5.235MM entry-level contract expired on July 1.

If general manager Pat Verbeek’s negotiations with Terry are any indication, we likely won’t learn any details about Zegras’ extension until it’s officially announced. The two sides were $3.5MM apart on a contract heading into their arbitration hearing, and there were no credible rumors of a settlement before the announcement came last Wednesday. Financial flexibility is not an issue for the rebuilding Ducks – CapFriendly still projects them with over $20MM in cap space after signing Terry.

Despite a 32nd-place finish for Anaheim in 2022-23, Zegras himself had a solid sophomore season. Skating in 81 games, he matched his rookie total in goals (23) and set a career-high in points with 65 while seeing a small bump in ice time to 18:50 per game. The 2019 ninth-overall pick has kept Anaheim relevant in public discourse despite their poor performance, routinely making incredible individual playmaking efforts. He may have significant defensive holes in his game, but Zegras said he’s “very excited” to play for new head coach Greg Cronin, who traveled to Connecticut to meet with the young center and outlined specific improvements for Zegras to focus on in the defensive zone.

Ideally, the buck won’t fall on Zegras long-term to be a do-it-all first-line center. The Ducks have multiple other top-six caliber prospects, including Mason McTavish and Leo Carlsson, with the latter carrying high two-way upside. Verbeek mentioned yesterday he envisions Zegras as the most likely candidate to shift to the wing eventually if Anaheim’s center corps becomes crowded.

That change won’t happen anytime soon, though, as Carlsson isn’t a guarantee to make the NHL next season. For now, Anaheim’s roster still carries significant holes, which will lead them to rely on Zegras heavily in the middle of the ice. Although free-agent additions Alex Killorn and Radko Gudas and a healthy Jamie Drysdale could buoy the team and lift them out of last place, 2023-24 is not expected to be the season where the young Ducks break out – yet.

Snapshots: Silfverberg, Carlsson, Jones, Seattle

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Ducks winger Jakob Silfverberg missed the final 23 games of the 2021-22 season due to a blood clot and had to deal with one once again this summer.  Gefle Dagblad’s Daniel Sandstrom reports that the 32-year-old sustained one while suiting up for his native Sweden at the Worlds back in May.  Fortunately, he is expected to be ready for the start of next season.  Silfverberg is coming off a 26-point season while playing over 80 games for the first time since 2015-16 and is entering the final year of his contract which carries a cap hit of $5.25MM.

Elsewhere around the hockey world:

  • Still with Anaheim, while there is an expectation that Ducks prospect Leo Carlsson will make the jump to the NHL next season, GM Pat Verbeek told NHL.com’s Nick Cotsonika that no determination has been made just yet on their plans for him. Carlsson was the second overall pick back in June and had a productive year with SHL Orebro, recording 10 goals and 15 assists in 44 games.  If Carlsson doesn’t make the team, Verbeek indicated that he’d be assigned to AHL San Diego next, not back to the Swedish league.  If he does make the team at his natural center position, Verbeek feels that Trevor Zegras who would move to the wing to make room for him.
  • At the moment, the defensive depth chart for the Rangers suggests that defenseman Zac Jones – now waiver-eligible – could be in line to land the seventh spot on the back end. However, in that scenario, Arthur Staple of The Athletic believes (subscription link) that the likelier outcome would be New York trading the 22-year-old over risking having his value stagnate as a frequent healthy scratch.  Jones seemed likely to crack the top six before the Rangers brought in veteran Erik Gustafsson (who played for new head coach Peter Laviolette last season in Washington) which should give him a leg up in the competition for a regular spot on the third pairing.
  • Seattle will be entering a bid to host the 2026 World Juniors, reports NHL Network’s Jon Morosi (Twitter link). If their proposal is accepted, Climate Pledge Arena – the home of the Kraken – would be one of the host facilities which means the Kraken would be eyeing a long road trip during the event.  A decision on the host city for the event is expected later this year.

Latest On Ethan Bear

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It has been an interesting few months for unrestricted free agent defenseman Ethan Bear.  After finishing out his season with Vancouver, he agreed to play for Canada at the Worlds despite not having a deal in place for 2023-24, a move that carried some risk.  While at that tournament, he re-aggravated an existing shoulder injury, resulting in him undergoing surgery.  That caused the Canucks to lower their offer to him and when a deal wasn’t agreed upon, they non-tendered him after the draft.

Since then, things have been quiet on his front with Bear not being linked to any teams through the first month of free agency.  Although he acknowledged to Postmedia’s Patrick Johnston that recovery is going well (perhaps even slightly ahead of schedule), the 26-year-old still isn’t going to be ready to play until sometime in December.  That certainly seems to have presented some challenges for him when it comes to finding a team to sign with.

With so many teams capped out, that will stand to limit the potential suitors Bear has right now.  While he’d be LTIR-eligible to start the season, if a signing team doesn’t have the cap room to carry him on the active roster now, they’d be in a tough spot where they’d need to open up room midseason to activate Bear.  The odd team has a willingness to do a move like this where they deal with the potential ramifications later but the role he’s likely to fill isn’t one where such a move could be justifiable.

Meanwhile, by the time he’s ready to return, there’s no guarantee that the teams that might have a spot for him now will still have one in December.  Others could be created by injuries but generally speaking, players unsigned that late into the year are settling for league minimum contracts (although Patrick Kane will almost certainly buck that trend at some point in 2023-24).

Bear indicated that a few teams have made inquiries thus far but clearly, an offer to his liking has yet to materialize.  He specifically stated a preference to return to Vancouver but was told by GM Patrik Allvin that they would need to clear up cap space for that to happen, a scenario that they are hardly alone in.  He fared relatively well with the Canucks after being acquired early last season, picking up 16 points in 61 games while averaging 18:32 per contest.

When healthy, Bear has shown over his five-year career that he is certainly an NHL-caliber defenseman, and as a right-shot player, he should be in more demand than it appears he has been thus far.  But his injury situation adds a wrinkle to those discussions and as a result, it looks like he’ll be on the open market for at least a little while longer even though his recovery might even be ahead of schedule.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Central Notes: Bichsel, Kiiskinen, Stapley

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While Stars prospect Lian Bichsel has his sights set on trying to crack the NHL roster in training camp after signing his entry-level contract back in May, it appears he’ll have a new team to play for if he goes back to Sweden.  Hans Abrahamsson and Tomas Ros of Aftonbladet report that the blueliner wouldn’t return to Leksands of the SHL; instead, he’d suit up in Rogle if loaned back overseas.  The 19-year-old was the 18th overall pick in 2022 and played a regular role with Leksands last season, collecting six points in 42 games while also suiting up for his native Switzerland at the World Juniors.  Dallas also has the right to send Bichsel to the AHL if they so desire which would give them an opportunity to have more influence on his playing time.

More from the Central:

  • Predators prospect Jesse Kiiskinen sustained a jaw injury on Monday and was held out of Finland’s final contest on Wednesday as well at the World Junior Summer Showcase. However, NHL.com’s Adam Kimelman notes that the injury isn’t believed to be serious but given that this is a summer event, they’re opting for caution with the 17-year-old.  Kiiskinen was a third-round pick by Nashville back in June (68th overall) and will be looking to land a full-time spot with Pelicans in Finland’s top level next season after getting seven Liiga games under his belt in 2022-23.
  • Colorado’s AHL affiliate announced the signing of forward Brett Stapley to a one-year, two-way AHL deal. The 24-year-old was a seventh-round pick by Montreal back in 2018 (190th overall) but didn’t receive an NHL contract from them.  He did, however, spend last season in their farm system, suiting up in 52 games with ECHL Trois-Rivieres, recording 52 points to lead the team in scoring.  Stapley will have some familiarity with the area having played his four-year college career with Denver.

Update On The Top Remaining RFA’s

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Since the opening of free agency on July 1st of this summer, there have been 300 contracts signed in the NHL. A bulk of those contracts have been unrestricted free agents signing with new teams, but also include restricted free agents garnering new deals with the current clubs, as well as some notable extensions.

The financial landscape around the league is very near to being set in stone before the start of training camp in September. Nevertheless, there are still a handful of restricted free agents left without new contracts who either did not file for arbitration or are ineligible to do so.

Per CapFriendly, in order of previous salary, the complete list is as follows:

  1. F Trevor Zegras – Anaheim Ducks
  2. F Alexis Lafreniere – New York Rangers
  3. D Tim Berni – Columbus Blue Jackets
  4. D Jamie Drysdale – Anaheim Ducks
  5. F Shane Pinto – Ottawa Senators
  6. D Logan Stanley – Winnipeg Jets
  7. F Joe Veleno – Detroit Red Wings
  8. D Evan Bouchard – Edmonton Oilers
  9. F Noah Philp – Edmonton Oilers
  10. F Egor Sokolov – Ottawa Senators
  11. D Declan Chisholm – Winnipeg Jets
  12. F Morgan Frost – Philadelphia Flyers
  13. F Jan Jenik – Arizona Coyotes
  14. D Calen Addison – Minnesota Wild

Immediately jumping off the list is the two notable building blocks in Anaheim, Zegras and Drysdale. After a solid year during the 2021-22 regular season, Drysdale was injured for much of last year due to a torn labrum, an injury that would limit him to only eight games played all year. Because of this, Drysdale might be boxed into a one-year deal for 2023-24, or he and the team could pursue a two-year, $5MM contract similar to the one Oliver Kylington signed with the Calgary Flames around this time last year.

Zegras, on the other hand, should have a much different approach to his contract negotiations with Anaheim. Over the past several years, the NHL has seen a large uptick in notable contract extensions given to young centers, the most recent example being Tim Stutzle’s eight-year, $66.8MM contract extension with the Ottawa Senators last September. After that contract was signed, Stutzle went from a 60-point pace in 2021-22 to a 90-point pace in 2022-23. Zegras is a very similar player to Stutzle (albeit Stutzle has shown the ability to be a better goal-scorer so far) but it will all come down to Pat Verbeek’s confidence in Zegras’ growth for next season. If he believes Zegras will become a star, a contract similar to Stutzle’s should largely be the aim of the team. If, however, Verbeek does not have the confidence in Zegras to become an above-average point scorer, Zegras may be in line for a one to two-year bridge deal.

Another name that should get a long look as a possible long-term extension candidate would be Frost on the Flyers. In his first season under new head coach, John Tortorella, Frost experienced a breakout year, scoring 46 points in 81 games. Although not having the track record typically necessary for a long-term extension, the rebuilding Philadelphia franchise has an opportunity to start securing its core for the future. Already moving on from Kevin Hayes, Frost projects as the team’s third-best forward for the upcoming season, and if the Flyers plan on contending in the next 5-7 years, a contract similar to Travis Konecny’s back in 2019 may not be the worst decision for the future of the franchise.

Lastly, two of the most complicated situations on the board come from Bouchard and Lafreniere. Suffice it to say, there is a legitimate chance that both players sit out a portion of training camp due to contract holdouts.

Both players are largely projected for bridge deals, given the cap space of their current clubs, but both of their markets have been impacted greatly this summer. In Bouchard’s case, the contracts given to Bowen Byram of the Colorado Avalanche, and K’Andre Miller of the New York Rangers, largely indicate what Bouchard should be expecting on his next deal. He should be expecting a two-year deal, somewhere in the $3.9MM-$4.1MM AAV range, and that’s something the Oilers do not have the space for currently. Bouchard’s importance to Edmonton was solidified last postseason, after scoring 17 points in 12 games, finishing third on the team in scoring. With only $3.5MM in cap space heading into the season, the Oilers are close to having enough space to fit in Bouchard, but will still need to make a move or two to fit in one of their best defensemen.

Unlike Bouchard, Lafreniere has largely disappointed in the context of his draft ranking (first overall in 2020). Patience seems to be growing thin with the young forward, even leading to rumors of a potential trade away from New York this summer. However, as many Vancouver Canucks fans should remember, franchise legend Daniel Sedin did not play like a top-three selection in his first three years in the league, either. This is not to say that Lafreniere will go on to produce as much as either Sedin twin, but a little more patience should be in order for the Rangers. With only $2.2MM remaining in cap space, and given his limited production over the past three seasons, Lafreniere should be expecting a two-year, $2.1MM-$2.5MM AAV for his next contract.

Pittsburgh Penguins Remove Interim GM Tag From Kyle Dubas

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The Pittsburgh Penguins announced Thursday that they’ve removed the interim tag from Kyle Dubas’ role as general manager, signifying they’ll continue with him serving as GM and president of hockey operations for the foreseeable future.

Pittsburgh also announced four other promotions, naming Andy Saucier their director of professional personnel, Erik Heasley their director of minor league and amateur scouting operations, and confirming the promotions of Amanda Kessel and Trevor Daley as special assistants to Dubas.

“At this time, I feel it is best for continuity that I formally continue in both roles as President and General Manager in the hockey operations department,” Dubas said, justifying removing the interim tag from his role. Pittsburgh brought Dubas in solely as the president of hockey operations when they hired him in June and initially aimed to name a separate general manager to work under Dubas later this summer. Dubas left the door open in his statement today on bringing a different general manager in down the line, but no such move will be made before next summer.

Saucier’s promotion is well-deserved, to say the least. He’s been in the Penguins organization for more than a decade, initially joining the AHL’s Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins as a video coach in 2010. After two seasons in the minors, he was promoted to Pittsburgh to serve in the same role, which he held until 2022. Last offseason, Pittsburgh promoted Saucier to hockey operations analyst. He’s now been promoted yet again to a new role under Dubas, which did not previously exist in the organization.

Heasley has also spent the entirety of his management career in the Penguins organization and had served as the GM of Wilkes-Barre/Scranton for parts of the last three seasons. Now, he’ll oversee the entire scouting department as it relates to AHL, ECHL, and junior-league talents.

Daley had spent the past three seasons in a senior advisor role for Pittsburgh, but he and Kessel (whose promotion was previously reported) will now work directly with Dubas in roles similar to what Jason Spezza had previously held when the two worked together last season with the Toronto Maple Leafs.

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