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RFA Notes: Raymond, Berggren, Pelletier, Perfetti

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The Detroit Red Wings are making progress on a long-term contract with star forward Lucas Raymond, shares David Pagnotta of The Fourth Period. Raymond is one of three restricted free agents still awaiting a deal from the Red Wings, alongside winger Jonatan Berggren and defender Moritz Seider.

Pagnotta added that talks between Raymond and Detroit have picked up over the last 10 days, but that the two sides are, “still grinding away at it.” The Red Wings kick off training camp on September 18th.

While Seider was Detroit’s unrivaled top defender last season, it’s Raymond who feels like the chore that needs done. The 22-year-old winger broke out this season, leading the Red Wings in scoring with a career-high 31 goals and 72 points in 82 games, topping his previous high of 23 goals and 57 points set as a rookie. He’s now up to 174 points in 238 career games, and stands as perhaps the most promising player on a Wings lineup in flux. His next contract will likely eat up the bulk of Detroit’s remaining $17.648MM in cap space, though the Wings will need to walk a fine line to not price themselves out of a similarly-hefty deal for Seider.

Other notes from around the league:

  • Pagnotta also mentioned that Detroit and Berggren are expected to agree to a contract before the start of training camp, though the deal will hinge on the final price given to Raymond and/or Seider. Berggren led the AHL’s Grand Rapids Griffins in scoring with 56 points in 53 games last season. It was Berggren’s first year back in the minors, after playing through his NHL rookie season in 2022-23 – ending with 15 goals and 28 points in 67 games. Detroit will have plenty of room to award hard-workers at training camp with NHL ice time to start the season – a group Berggren will hope to lead after signing a new deal.
  • Detroit’s forward momentum with their RFAs hasn’t trickled up to Canada, with the Calgary Flames still far off from a deal with RFA forward Jakob Pelletier, per TSN’s Salim Nadim Valji. Valji adds that things could change quickly but are, for now, quiet. Pelletier has become a fan-favorite prospect, solidified by his routinely strong performances in the minor leagues. The 23-year-old has 111 points through 119 AHL games, but has struggled to translate that production to the top flight, with just 10 points in 37 career NHL games. Like Detroit, Calgary stands a chance to award young players with strong lineup roles. Pelletier seems a favorite to handle one of those spots, though he’ll first need to bridge the gap in quiet negotiations.
  • Winnipeg is going through sluggish talks of their own with RFA winger Cole Perfetti, who has yet to hear back on a firm offer reports Pagnotta. Perfetti potted 19 goals and 38 points in 71 games last year – but looked capable of much more with a stronger role in the lineup. He’s 22, and carries an admirable 75 points and 140 games of NHL experience. Those numbers fall closely in line with Senators centerman Shane Pinto, who recently signed a two-year, $7MM extension after missing the bulk of the 2023-24 campaign. That deal stands as Perfetti’s strongest comparable, though it may be hard to bear for a Winnipeg team with just $5.776MM in remaining cap space.

Senators Sign Calen Addison, Nikolai Kulemin To PTOs

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The Senators are bringing in defenseman Calen Addison and veteran winger Nikolai Kulemin into training camp on professional tryout agreements, the team announced Thursday.

Addison, 24, will look to catch on in Ottawa after a difficult 2023-24 campaign. The right-shot defender broke into a full-time role with the Wild in 2022-23, playing minimally at even strength but posting 29 points in 62 games while logging significant time on the Minnesota power play.

Defensive concerns have always been paramount with Addison’s game, though. A second-round pick of the Penguins back in 2018, he arrived in Minnesota’s prospect pool two years later via the trade that sent Jason Zucker to Pittsburgh. In his limited usage in 2022-23, averaging 16:07 per game, he still managed to log a team-worst -17 rating.

An RFA last offseason, Addison held out for much of the summer before agreeing to a one-year, $825K deal shortly after training camp began in September. He played just 12 games for the Wild, posting five assists and a -3 rating, before he was traded to the league-worst Sharks in early November.

Even as the top offensive and power-play option on a paper-thin San Jose defense, Addison couldn’t reclaim his offensive production from the year before. He posted a more conservative 12 points in 60 games after the trade, averaging 17:21 per game and supplementing it with a -35 rating, although that figure doesn’t stick out like a sore thumb on a Sharks team that finished the season with a -150 goal differential.

Nonetheless, it wasn’t particularly surprising when the Sharks non-tendered Addison in June, letting him hit the unrestricted free-agent market three years before he’d otherwise be eligible for UFA status. With no interest in a guaranteed deal, he’ll look to land a likely league-minimum pact in camp with the Sens.

While Ottawa’s top four on defense are set to enter the season with Thomas Chabot, Nick Jensen, Jake Sanderson, and Artem Zub, there will be a fair amount of competition for bottom-pairing jobs. Veteran Travis Hamonic is still under contract, and he’ll be competing with the younger Jacob Bernard-Docker and Tyler Kleven for minutes out of the gate. There’s more than enough room for Addison to squeeze himself into the conversation, especially as a much more skilled puck-mover than any member of that trio.

Meanwhile, Kulemin is an immediate contender for the most eye-popping PTO of the offseason. The 38-year-old winger was a second-round pick of the Maple Leafs back in 2006, playing in over 400 games for the club (including a 30-goal campaign in 2010-11). He then signed a four-year deal with the Islanders in free agency in 2014, recording 37 goals and 79 points in 248 games there.

But after falling to a fourth-line role amid a rash of injuries in 2017-18, the final season of his contract in New York, Kulemin opted to return to his native Russia the following summer. He’s spent the last six years in the Kontinental Hockey League playing for Metallurg Magnitogorsk and Salavat Yulaev Ufa.

Kulemin is still an effective secondary scorer in a top professional league, though, even in the final stages of his career. He had 13 goals and 25 points in 46 games for Ufa last season, finishing sixth on the team in scoring while serving as an alternate captain.

It’s a puzzling career move for Kulemin, but it appears he’s intent on getting another shot in North America. There is an outside chance he could land a fourth-line role and make the opening night roster, competing with players like Angus Crookshank and Zack MacEwen. But if he’s intent on adding to his 669 career NHL games, he’ll likely need to do it by starting with the Sens’ AHL affiliate in Belleville and working his way back up.

Maple Leafs Sign Marshall Rifai To Two-Year Extension

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The Maple Leafs have extended defenseman Marshall Rifai on a two-year contract, the team announced today. The deal will pay him up to $1.55MM in total ($775K per season) if he’s on the NHL roster – the league minimum.  PuckPedia adds that it’s a one-way agreement in both years.

Rifai, 26, signed an AHL contract with the Maple Leafs’ affiliate, the Toronto Marlies, after completing his collegiate career at Harvard in 2022. He landed a two-year, two-way NHL deal with the Maple Leafs the following summer after recording 16 points, a +3 rating, and a team-high 118 PIMs in 69 games with the Marlies in his first professional season.

The left-shot defender’s first year under an NHL contract also saw him make his NHL debut. Rifai suited up twice for the Leafs last season, posting a +1 rating, one shot, and four hits while averaging 11:40 of ice time across the pair of February contests. He also improved offensively on the farm, upping his production to 17 assists and 19 points in 57 games with the Marlies while posting 71 PIMs and a +14 rating.

Rifai would have become an unrestricted free agent next summer, a fate avoided with today’s extension. He’ll now be eligible to test the open market when his new deal expires in 2027. Attaching two additional years of term to his contract now makes it highly unlikely that a team will claim Rifai off waivers when Toronto attempts to assign him to the Marlies to begin the season.

Ducks Sign Oscar Dansk To Two-Way Deal

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The Ducks have added free agent goaltender Oscar Dansk, signing him to a two-way deal, the team announced today in a press release. Financial terms were not disclosed by the team but PuckPedia reports that the contract pays $775K in the NHL, $150K in the minors, and has a guarantee of $200K.

Dansk, 30, has made just six NHL appearances, all for the Golden Knights, and hasn’t seen NHL ice since March 2021. He hasn’t been out of the NHL pyramid, though. He spent the last two seasons on two-way deals with the Flames, recording a 3.04 GAA, .900 SV%, and a 19-18-5 record in 44 AHL games for the Calgary Wranglers while backing up top goaltending prospect Dustin Wolf.

Following that run, he’ll remain in a No. 3/4 role for a Pacific Division club. Dansk will likely land on waivers during training camp and, if he clears, report to the AHL’s San Diego Gulls. There, he’ll complement a trio of young Ducks netminders: Vyacheslav Butsayets, Calle Clang, and Tomas Suchanek. At least one of those three, likely Butsayets, will be destined for assignment one level further down to the ECHL’s Tulsa Oilers.

Dansk, a Stockholm native, was a second-round pick of the Blue Jackets in 2012. In addition to his time in the Columbus, Vegas, and Calgary organizations, Dansk has played professionally for Rögle BK of the Swedish Hockey League (2015-2017) and Spartak Moscow of the Kontinental Hockey League (2021-22).

Devils Sign Jakub Zboril, Michael Hutchinson To PTOs

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The Devils have officially signed defenseman Jakub Zboril and goaltender Michael Hutchinson to professional tryout agreements, the team announced today in a pair of press releases.

Zboril, the No. 13 overall pick by the Bruins in 2015, didn’t see any NHL action last season for the first time since 2019-20. He was waived following training camp and assigned to the AHL’s Providence Bruins, where he was limited to nine points and a -5 rating in 31 games before his nine-year tenure in the Boston organization ended in March.

After being shipped to the Blue Jackets in the trade deadline deal that saw Andrew Peeke head to the Bruins, Zboril posted four assists and a -2 rating in 15 games to end the season with Columbus’ AHL affiliate, the Cleveland Monsters. He wasn’t brought back after reaching unrestricted free agency this summer following the conclusion of the two-year, $2.28MM extension he signed to stay in Boston in 2022.

Now 27, Zboril has topped out as a top-four AHL defender or a fringe No. 7 option on an NHL roster. He has one goal, 15 assists, 16 points, and an even rating in 76 career appearances in parts of four seasons with the Bruins, averaging 15:38 per game. The 6’0″, 194-lb defender does play an effective physical game, but he hasn’t been a notable offensive option in the pros, even at the AHL level.

Hutchinson, 34, will provide veteran insurance between the pipes during camp to complement a trio of young, NHL-contracted depth netminders who will be jockeying for AHL and ECHL starts. He hasn’t been a full-time NHL option since the mid-2010s, but he has still made at least one appearance per year in a depth role for various teams.

He spent last season with the Red Wings, mostly with their AHL affiliate, the Grand Rapids Griffins. But he did make one NHL start, ironically against the Devils, posting a .917 SV% in a loss on Dec. 23, 2023. He’s struggled in AHL action over the past few years, posting sub-.900 save percentages for three seasons in a row.

Neither player will compete earnestly for a spot on the Devils’ opening night roster. Instead, they’ll look to convert strong camp performances into two-way deals and land with New Jersey’s AHL affiliate, the Utica Comets, for 2024-25 after likely passing through waivers unclaimed.

Alex Goligoski Confirms Retirement

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Free agent defenseman Alex Goligoski is hanging up his skates, he confirmed to Joe Smith of The Athletic. It’s the expected outcome after reports in June indicated he wasn’t expected back with the Wild, where he spent the final three seasons of his career.

“I think I’ve known for a while,” Goligoski told Smith. “Do you hang around and see if some team wants to throw some money at you? I have no desire to move my family. No desire to go by myself and do all that. That’s the most amazing thing about finishing in Minnesota. It makes it easier to say, ‘Hey, I’m good.’”

“…I think it’s the longevity of it, honestly. I can totally see where it’d be very difficult if you’re not planning on being done, where it’s like you don’t get a contract but you’re still younger. It feels to me like I’ve had my fun, I’ve done it long enough. I’m good to step away and move on.”

Goligoski, 39, was a second-round pick by the Penguins in 2004 before starting a three-year run at the University of Minnesota. The Grand Rapids, Minnesota native turned pro with Pittsburgh for the 2007-08 campaign, playing parts of four seasons in the Steel City before being sent to the Stars in a blockbuster swap for James Neal and Matt Niskanen.

A top-pairing option for much of the 2010s in Dallas, Goligoski’s signing rights were traded to the Coyotes just days before becoming a free agent in 2016 and quickly signed a five-year, $27.38MM deal. He continued to hold down top-four minutes there for the life of that contract before signing a one-year, $5MM deal with the Wild, his hometown club, in 2021. He signed a two-year, $4MM deal to extend his stay in the State of Hockey the following summer, which expired this June.

The writing was on the wall for Goligoski after last season, which saw him limited to 10 assists in 36 games while averaging 14:49 per game and serving as a healthy scratch for long stretches of the season. He hasn’t been a top-of-the-lineup option since his days in Arizona, but he did remain a capable puck-moving presence in a limited role after joining the Wild.

Goligoski was one of the league’s 10 oldest players last season. Three players ahead of him on the list – Jeff Carter, Zach Parise, and Joe Pavelski – had already retired this summer, making Goligoski the sixth-oldest active player in the league at the time of his retirement.

His first season as an NHL regular saw him lift the Stanley Cup with the Penguins in 2009, appearing in 45 regular-season games and two playoff games en route to the championship win. Over 1,078 regular-season games, he scored 87 goals, 388 assists, and 475 points and posted a +55 rating while averaging 21:55 per night. He added 21 points in 47 playoff games in six trips to the postseason (2009, 2010, 2014, 2016, 2020, and 2022).

While ending his playing days, Goligoski hopes to kick off a career in an NHL front office soon. “I’ve always liked breaking down what teams do and why they do it,” he told Smith. “I have a good sense of the right way to do things. I’ve seen it. I’ve seen the right way and the wrong way to do things. I think it’d be something I’m good at. So we’ll see.” He doesn’t have an official role with the Wild, but Smith reports Wild general manager Bill Guerin will be open to hiring him once he’s ready to begin the next phase of his hockey career.

Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.

Marc Staal Retires, Joins Rangers As Development Coach

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Veteran defenseman Marc Staal has announced his retirement after 17 seasons. He’s immediately beginning his front office career with the Rangers as a player development assistant, the team announced.

For Staal, it’s a return to where his NHL career began nearly two decades ago. The No. 12 pick in the 2005 draft by the Rangers, he was the third Staal brother to reach the NHL, following Eric Staal with the Hurricanes and Jordan Staal with the Penguins.

Staal, now 37, spent two post-draft seasons back in junior hockey with the Ontario Hockey League’s Sudbury Wolves before becoming a full-time fixture on the New York blue line immediately upon turning pro in 2007. He challenged for top-four minutes in his rookie season, posting 10 points and a +2 rating in 80 games while averaging nearly 19 minutes per night en route to finishing 12th in Calder Trophy voting in 2007-08.

By the time his entry-level deal expired, Staal was averaging over 22 minutes per game and had become one of the better stay-at-home defenders in the league on a team consistently in the playoff race. He also contributed a decent amount of offense, posting 27 points in his final ELC year of 2009-10 – all at even strength. That led the Blueshirts to give him a five-year, $19.88MM payday after a somewhat lengthy holdout during the 2010 offseason, putting pen to paper on the deal just around when training camp began in September.

Staal would remain a top-four fixture for the Rangers throughout the 2010s, signing a six-year, $34.2MM extension on top of his previous deal in 2015 to avoid becoming an unrestricted free agent. He helped guide the Rangers to the 2014 Eastern Conference championship, although they lost the Stanley Cup Final in five games to the Kings. His top showing was inarguably the 2010-11 campaign, when he recorded a career-high 22 assists, 29 points, and averaged 25:44 per game en route to receiving Norris Trophy votes for the only time in his career.

The stalwart defender saw his usage drop early on in that six-year extension, though, and he was a bottom-pairing option by the time the COVID-19 pandemic struck in 2020. With one year left on his deal, the Rangers attached a second-round pick for the Red Wings to take on the final season of his contract. He’d spent two seasons on a rebuilding Detroit club, signing a one-year pact to extend his stay, before landing with the Panthers as a free agent for the 2022-23 campaign.

Staal seemed to get some life back in South Florida, playing alongside brother Eric for the second time (Eric had a brief stint with the Rangers in 2016). He appeared in all 82 games for the third time in his career and posted 15 points with a +10 rating, sliding into top-four spot duty alongside Brandon Montour. He was held without a point in 21 playoff games but averaged nearly 21 minutes per night as Florida charged through to the 2023 Stanley Cup Final, ultimately losing to the Golden Knights.

A reunion wasn’t in the cards, though, leaving Staal to land a one-year, $1.1MM deal in free agency with the Flyers last summer. He was relegated to fringe usage as a No. 7 option, though, making only 35 appearances and averaging 13:49 per game.

For his career, Staal scored 53 goals, 181 assists, and 234 points and posted a +52 rating while averaging 19:56 per game across 1,136 regular season appearances. He also totaled 20 points, a -17 rating and averaged 21:46 per game in 128 playoff games with Florida and New York. He’ll be working with the organization’s defense prospects in his development role, per Larry Brooks of the New York Post.

Larry Brooks of the New York Post was first to report Staal’s retirement and development role with the Rangers.

Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.

Atlantic Notes: Peterka, Kostadinski, McCue

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The NHL has ramped up its visits overseas coming out of the COVID-19 pandemic. In doing so, they often make an effort to reunite foreign-born NHLers with their home countries and, even in some cases, their former teams.

That’ll be the case for emerging Sabres winger John-Jason Peterka, who spoke to NHL.com’s Nick Cotsonika about getting the chance to suit up in his native Germany and play a preseason game against EHC Munich of the Deutsche Eishockey Liga, where he played in 2019-20 and 2020-21.

“I was always there with my parents cheering for the team,” Peterka told Cotsonika. “We were in the stands all the time. It was so special for me to play for Munich because I’m from there [and grew] up there. Yeah, having the chance now to go back there, play against them, play in front of all the fans again, yeah, it’s going to be really special.”

After their exhibition game in Munich, the Sabres will open the regular season with a back-to-back against the Devils in Prague, Czechia. It’s the start of a crucial campaign for Peterka, who’s entering the final season of his entry-level contract after scoring a career-high 28 goals and 50 points last season.

Other items of note from around the Atlantic:

  • Bruins defense prospect Kristian Kostadinski has committed to Boston College, reports Mark Divver of the New England Hockey Journal and NHL.com. Boston drafted the 6’6″, 220-lb stay-at-home defender in the seventh round of the 2023 draft. The Gothenburg, Sweden native spent last season at home with Frölunda HC’s U20 club and will touch down in the North American juniors circuit this season with the Dubuque Fighting Saints of the United States Hockey League. The 19-year-old will head to BC for his freshman campaign in 2025-26.
  • Maple Leafs seventh-rounder Sam McCue has a real chance to outperform his draft slot, opines Steven Ellis of Daily Faceoff for The Leafs Nation. McCue, 19 next month, was taken 216th overall a few months ago after posting 37 points in 68 games with the Ontario Hockey League’s Peterborough Petes and Owen Sound Attack last year. But despite those conservative point totals, Ellis believes McCue has NHL upside in his game as a “high-motor winger.”

Mattias Norlinder Signs Two-Year Deal In Sweden

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As expected, former Canadiens defense prospect Mattias Norlinder will continue his career in his native Sweden. The 24-year-old inked a two-year deal with MoDo Hockey of the Swedish Hockey League yesterday, per a club announcement.

Montreal didn’t issue a qualifying offer to Norlinder when he was set to become a restricted free agent earlier this summer, relinquishing his NHL signing rights. But the team still had interest in retaining the blue liner as late as last week, when his agent told Swedish media that the Habs had made Norlinder an offer to return.

Norlinder declined a return to Montreal, though, instead choosing to return to the organization where he spent most of his development. Citing a desire for more offensive freedom, he reportedly reached an agreement with MoDo earlier in the week.

However, the deal wasn’t finished because they lacked the funds to sign him. After a short crowd-funding campaign, they garnered enough cash to land him.

The Canadiens brought Norlinder into the organization with the No. 64 overall pick in the 2019 draft. They let him bake for two more seasons in Sweden with MoDo and Frölunda HC before signing him to his entry-level contract during the 2021 offseason.

Montreal loaned Norlinder back to Frölunda in the SHL for 2021-22, which is when the first cracks in an otherwise solid development path up to that point began to emerge. The smooth-skating defender had been a reliable two-way presence to start his professional career overseas and had the point totals to back it up. However, he managed just two assists in 21 games with Frölunda during his first season under contract with the Habs.

The Canadiens recalled Norlinder from his loan after Frölunda’s season ended, giving him his first taste of NHL action. He was limited to 12:18 per game through six contests but managed to record his first and only NHL point and an assist, as well as a +2 rating, 2 PIMs, two shots, three blocks, and four hits.

Norlinder never got a recall after that initial NHL stint. He spent the final two seasons of his ELC strictly in the minors on assignment to the AHL’s Laval Rocket, where he struggled to the tune of nine points and a -14 rating in 50 games last season.

He’ll now look to rebuild his value with a resurgent offensive campaign. If he wants to return stateside, doing so could still land him NHL interest when his contract with MoDo runs out in 2026.

Evening Notes: Rantanen, Binnington, Sundqvist

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Evan Rawal of Colorado Hockey Now writes about the impact that Leon Draisaitl’s new contract will have on Colorado Avalanche forward Mikko Rantanen’s next deal. The 27-year-old Rantanen shares an agent with Draisaitl but appears unlikely to match the $14MM AAV that Draisaitl recently agreed to. David Pastrnak’s contract is probably a good comparable for Rantanen, but as Rawal points out, that deal was signed a year and a half ago and the cap has gone up since then and will likely go up again next season.

Rantanen is coming off back-to-back 100+ point seasons and has scored 97 goals in the past two seasons. Given that he plays in Colorado, the Avalanche will likely want to keep his AAV under the $12.6MM that Nathan MacKinnon signed for in September 2022.

In other evening notes:

  • Jeremy Rutherford of The Athletic writes about St. Louis Blues goaltender Jordan Binnington and whether he will play out the final three years of his contract in St. Louis. Rutherford believes that if Binnington plays well for the next couple of seasons and keeps the team in the playoff hunt then the team will likely keep him through the end of his deal (or close to the end of it). However, if Binnington’s play drops off, or if backup Joel Hofer is ready to play, Rutherford could foresee St. Louis turning to their young backup to anoint him the team’s starter, regardless of whether they keep or trade Binnington.
  • Jeremy Rutherford of The Athletic writes that Blues forward Oskar Sundqvist began skating again after undergoing surgery to repair a torn ACL on March 25th. Sundqvist was supposed to be evaluated at the end of September and it is encouraging to see him skating this early. St. Louis is expected to have several young forward prospects challenge for roles this fall at training camp but given that Sundqvist was just re-signed to a two-year deal, it’s likely he will start the season in the NHL if he is healthy enough to do so. The 30-year-old signed a two-year, $3MM deal in March and posted six goals and 15 assists in 71 games before the injury.

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