Taro Hirose Signs With German Team
Former Red Wings left winger Taro Hirose has signed with EHC Munich of the Deutsche Eishockey Liga, according to a team announcement.
Hirose, 28, spent last season playing out the back half of a two-year, two-way extension signed with Detroit in 2022. For the first time since turning pro in 2019, however, he was buried entirely in the minors with the AHL’s Grand Rapids Griffins, where the 5’10”, 170-lb playmaker had 27 assists and 36 points in 54 games. The Red Wings didn’t bring him back after reaching unrestricted free agency in July.
Hirose has appeared in 60 NHL regular season games, all with Detroit – most recently, a three-game call-up in March and April 2023. An undrafted free agent signing out of Michigan State, the Winnipeg native has been an AHL fixture, only logging a career-high 26 NHL appearances with the Wings in 2019-20.
Overall, the 2019 NCAA scoring champion posted four goals, 16 assists, 20 points, and a -17 rating in 60 games with Detroit in parts of five seasons. He joins a Munich roster highlighted by a few other former NHLers, namely Adam Brooks, Tobias Rieder, and Ben Smith.
Summer Synopsis: Montreal Canadiens
In a summer when many teams either looked to add to their rosters to aid in their expected playoff push or sold as part of their rebuilding process, the Canadiens have largely stood pat, opting to continue their current trajectory from the rebuild that began in the season following their improbable run to the Stanley Cup Final in 2021. In doing so, they’ll be banking on continued development from their young core while hoping for better luck on the health front after dealing with considerable injury trouble in recent years.
Draft
1-5: RW Ivan Demidov, SKA-1946 St. Petersburg (MHL)
1-21: C Michael Hage, Chicago Steel (USHL)
3-70: C Aatos Koivu, TPS U20 (U20 SM-sarja)
3-78: C Logan Sawyer, Brooks Bandits (BCHL)
4-102: D Owen Protz, Brantford Bulldogs (OHL)
5-130: RW Tyler Thorpe, Vancouver Giants (WHL)
5-134: G Mikus Vecvanags, Tukums (Latvia2)
6-166: C Ben Merrill, St. Sebastian’s School (USHS-Prep)
7-210: RW Makar Khanin, Dynamo St. Petersburg (VHL)
7-224: D Rasmus Bergqvist, Skelleftea AIK J20 (J20 Nationell)
Some expected Demidov to go as high as second overall with few figuring he’d be available with the fifth selection. After passing on another high-offense winger the year before in Matvei Michkov, the Canadiens were happy to get their hands on a player who they believe could be a game-breaking talent. While he’ll play this season in the KHL, he’s expected to sign with Montreal once that campaign ends, providing the possibility that he could get into a game or two with the Canadiens before the end of the 2024-25 season.
That won’t be the case for Hage, however. After a strong second half in the USHL, Hage is on his way to the University of Michigan. While some college prospects are one-and-done, the likelier scenario for Hage is that he spends at least two seasons with the Wolverines, allowing him to ease his way into a top role before turning pro.
To start the second day of the draft, the Canadiens turned to a bloodline they’re familiar with in Koivu whose father Saku spent 13 years with the team. While Saku was in the NHL two years after being drafted, that isn’t expected to be the case for Aatos who will be looking to make the full-time jump to the professional ranks in Finland. Sawyer, a big center is also a longer-term project even after reclassifying to start with Providence College this season instead of waiting until 2025-26.
In recent years, the Canadiens have opted to largely eschew drafting from the CHL, a decision that gives them a longer signing timeline with most of their picks; only Protz and Thorpe have to sign by June 1, 2026. As a team carrying 21 players on entry-level contracts at the moment, their hope is that this approach will allow them more time to integrate their prospects into their minor league system and lessen the potential of having too many to sign at a certain time. And with a dozen picks for 2025 already, they may be continuing that approach for a little while longer.
UFA Signings
F Alex Barre-Boulet (one year, $775K)
G Connor Hughes (one year, $775K)*
*-denotes a two-way contract
Arguably no team was quieter than the Canadiens on the free agent front this summer. Their one move was to make an addition that some feel is more for their AHL team than Montreal. Barre-Boulet played in a career-high 36 games with Tampa Bay last season, picking up nine points. But the 27-year-old has been a high-end AHL performer, recording 302 points in 294 games over six seasons at the minor league level. An offseason training injury to Rafael Harvey-Pinard could give Barre-Boulet a path to a roster spot to start the season but if that doesn’t happen, he’s likely to play a big role with AHL Laval pending waiver clearance.
Technically, Hughes was signed in the spring, inking this deal nearly a month before free agency opened up but with Montreal not doing anything else on the open market, we’ll note it here. The 28-year-old has taken a unique path to this NHL contract. After not landing a CHL opportunity in his junior career, Hughes spent the last seven seasons in Switzerland, working his way up from the second league to the NL where he posted a 1.73 GAA and a .940 SV% in 19 games with Lausanne last season. He’ll also likely battle for playing time in Laval.
Trade Acquisitions
F Patrik Laine (acquired from Columbus)
Again, it’s a pretty small section to work with as GM Kent Hughes only made one addition on the trade front. It was, however, a notable one as Laine immediately becomes Montreal’s highest-paid skater at $8.7MM for the next two seasons; the contract was enough of an issue that the Canadiens also received a second-round pick as part of the move to absorb the full cost of it.
Last season was a rough one on multiple fronts for the 28-year-old. When healthy, he struggled to the point of even being healthy scratched. Laine then underwent shoulder surgery and entered the NHL/NHLPA Player Assistance Program soon after, only being taken out of that in recent weeks. The end result was a career-low 18 games played with just nine points. However, Laine was a point-per-game or better in his two previous years in Columbus and Montreal will be counting on at least somewhat of a return to form to give them a lift offensively.
RFA Re-Signings
D Justin Barron (two years, $2.3MM)
D Arber Xhekaj (two years, $2.6MM)
Again, you guessed it, it was a pretty small list of RFAs for the Canadiens to navigate. Both blueliners broke camp with Montreal last season but wound up seeing time in the AHL with the Rocket in an effort to work on some areas of concern before returning to the big club.
Barron, a 2020 first-round pick, logged over 18 minutes a night when he was with the Canadiens, often seeing time in the top four. With only one other veteran right-shot blueliner in the mix (David Savard) and the fact he’s now waiver-eligible, Barron should have an opportunity to cement himself as a full-time regular this season.
As for Xhekaj, his playing time has been a bit more limited so far, averaging under 16 minutes a night in his first two seasons. The 23-year-old has been one of the better undrafted free agent CHL players in recent memory, going from being undrafted in 2021 to seeing NHL action the following year. Montreal doesn’t have a lot of intimidating players on their roster and it stands to reason he’ll be penciled in to remain on the third pairing for at least the short-term future. Worth noting is that Xhekaj remains waiver-exempt so if the Canadiens are looking to dip in and out of LTIR (or stay out altogether), he could be someone who gets papered to the minors somewhat regularly early on.
Contract Extensions
D Kaiden Guhle (six years, $33MM)
F Juraj Slafkovsky (eight years, $60.8MM)
Continuity was the theme of Montreal’s summer so it comes as no surprise that their most prominent transactions in July revolved around that.
The team wasted little time getting a max-term extension for Slafkovsky done, buying four years of extra club control in the process while respecting the salary structure of Nick Suzuki being their top-paid forward (before Laine took that on six weeks later). The 2022 number one pick had a dreadful start last season, leaving some calling for him to spend time in Laval. Instead, Canadiens coach Martin St. Louis took a different approach, instead elevating Slafkovsky to the top line. The move worked wonders as Slafkovsky picked up 16 goals and 19 assists in the second half of the season, showing signs of becoming the impactful power forward they want him to be. Clearly, management felt that this was a sign of things to come and with this extension, Montreal’s top line is all signed through at least the 2029-30 campaign.
Meanwhile, management determined that Guhle is one of the building blocks on a back end that has gotten very young very quickly (with a few prospects still looking to make the jump). The 2020 first-round pick has had injury issues in his first two professional campaigns but when he was in the lineup, he logged over 20 minutes each year. Montreal will be counting on him to play a key defensive role both now and in the future on a back end that is still expected to have a fair amount of turnover over the next couple of years. The deal buys two extra years of club control while giving Guhle a chance to hit the open market at 29, giving him a chance at another long-term deal.
Departures
F Lias Andersson (Biel-Bienne, NL)
F Filip Cederqvist (Frolunda, SHL)
F Arnaud Durandeau (Amur Khaborovsk, KHL)
D Jordan Harris (trade with Columbus)
D Brady Keeper (Poprad, Slovakia)
D Johnathan Kovacevic (trade with New Jersey)
F Philippe Maillet (Ambri-Piotta, NL)
D Mattias Norlinder (MoDo, SHL)
F Tanner Pearson (PTO, Vegas)
F Mitchell Stephens (Seattle, two years, $1.55M)*
F Colin White (San Jose, AHL)
D Chris Wideman (retirement)
F Jesse Ylonen (Tampa Bay, one year, $775K)*
*-denotes a two-way contract
On the trade front, the Canadiens parted with a pair of regular defenders from the past two seasons, opening up room for some younger players to push for a spot. Harris was the return going to Columbus in the Laine swap. The 24-year-old has 131 career NHL contests under his belt already, establishing himself as a capable depth defender, a role he should be able to push for with the Blue Jackets. As for Kovacevic, he was a waiver claim late in training camp in 2022 and more or less was a full-time player after that, getting into 139 NHL games since then. Signed for one more year at a cap charge below the league minimum salary, Kovacevic is likely to have more of a depth role with New Jersey, barring injuries.
On the free agent departure side, Montreal didn’t lose any core pieces. Ylonen played in a career-best 59 games last season but managed just eight points, resulting in a non-tender. Pearson was acquired as a salary offset in a late-summer trade with Vancouver last year but had a very limited role while White, a late-season waiver pickup, failed to record a point in 28 NHL games last season. Aside from Wideman (who didn’t play due to injury), the rest of the departures were from the AHL level; the Canadiens are opting to fill those roles with prospects and some veterans on minor-league contracts.
Salary Cap Outlook
At the moment, the Canadiens project to be a little more than $2MM above the cap ceiling, per PuckPedia. However, that figure includes Carey Price ($10.5MM) who remains LTIR-eligible should Montreal not be able to get below the $88MM Upper Limit before the start of the season. While staying in LTIR would give them a seven-figure bonus overage penalty for 2025-26 (as they have this season and had the year before), Price being on LTIR would give them more than enough space to operate with. If they opt to stay in LTIR all season, it’s possible that they look to take on a contract from a team looking to open up extra cap space.
Key Questions
What Will Laine Provide? When Laine is at his best, he is a high-end goal scorer who can play around a point-per-game level. If he can get back to that level, he can provide a significant boost to Montreal’s forward group, giving them some much-needed secondary scoring on a roster that has been in the bottom six in goals scored in three straight years. But his struggles pre-injury with the Blue Jackets were certainly significant and after being off since mid-December, it’s far from a guarantee that he can get back to his top form. Laine asked for a fresh start and now he has it; we’ll soon see if that can kick-start him after a rough 2023-24 campaign.
Is Hutson Ready For Prime Time? One of the storylines heading into the 2022 draft was Lane Hutson, a player with first-round talent but he was well undersized for a blueliner. He slipped to the end of the second round and then lit up the NCAA for two seasons, securing his entry-level deal and getting into two games with Montreal to finish the year where he had two assists. Will Hutson and his high-skilled offensive game be able to stick with the Canadiens or will he need time with Laval? If Hutson can crack Montreal’s roster, he should become a second legitimate offensive threat from the back end, joining Mike Matheson who quietly finished ninth in points by a defenseman last season.
Can Dach Become A Full-Time Top-Six Center? After showing some promise down the middle late in 2022-23, Kirby Dach was slotted in as Montreal’s second-line center to start last season. That lasted for all of four periods before he suffered a season-ending knee injury. Injuries have been a consistent problem for the 2019 third-overall selection going back to his time with Chicago. Nonetheless, the Canadiens didn’t look to add any help down the middle this summer; their only other potential center with some offensive upside is Alex Newhook who might be better suited on the wing. Suffice it to say, they’re counting on Dach staying healthy and having a breakout year. With Hage being at least a couple of years away and being their top center prospect, Dach has some runway to work with. Can he become that core player the Blackhawks were counting on him to be five years ago? This season might go a long way toward answering that question.
Photos courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
East Notes: Peat, Merkulov, Canadiens
The NHL Alumni Association announced today (Twitter link) that former Capitals winger Stephen Peat has passed away at the age of 44 from injuries sustained in a car accident a little over two weeks ago. He was drafted by Anaheim in the second round in 1998 but never played for them as he was moved to Washington two years later. Peat spent parts of five seasons in the Capitals organization, getting into 130 games at the NHL level where he had ten points and 234 penalty minutes, wrapping up his pro career one year later in the 2006-07 season. We at PHR send our condolences to Peat’s family and friends.
More from the Eastern Conference:
- The Bruins intend to use Georgii Merkulov at center at training camp, relays Steve Conroy of the Boston Herald. The 23-year-old made his NHL debut last season, getting into four games with Boston where he was held off the scoresheet but he was quite productive with AHL Providence, notching 30 goals and 35 assists in 67 games. Boston signed Elias Lindholm to anchor the top line this summer while they acquired Mark Kastelic who should hold down the center spot on the fourth line. With Charlie Coyle still in the mix presumably the center on the second trio, it appears that Merkulov will have to beat out Matthew Poitras and PTO Tyler Johnson to land a regular role in the lineup.
- The Canadiens announced several hires today and while most were in the scouting or training departments, they added Roger Grillo as a coaching consultant. Presumably, he’ll help fill the role vacated by Alex Burrows who moved from being an assistant coach into a player development role. Grillo was on the coaching staff at the University of Vermont when head coach Martin St. Louis played there and had been with USA Hockey since 2009. This will be Grillo’s first coaching job in the pros.
Flames Sign Jakob Pelletier
The Calgary Flames have signed prospect Jakob Pelletier to a one-year, two-way contract shares Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman. The deal will pay him $800K at the NHL level. Pelletier was one of six remaining restricted free agents in Calgary, including defenseman Ilya Solovyov.
Pelletier suffered a pre-season upper-body injury last season, delaying the start of his season to January 26th. He impressed when he finally returned, earning an NHL call-up after netting three points in his first four games back. Pelletier appeared in 13 games in the Calgary lineup, recording three points, one penalty, and a +1 in fourth-line minutes. He was much more productive in the minors, totaling 12 points in 18 games – maintaining the near point-per-game production he recorded in 66 AHL games in 2021-22, and 35 games last year.
Pelletier is one of many top Flames prospects who should benefit from the team’s closet cleaning this summer. With this deal in place, he’ll step into competition with players like Matthew Coronato, Sam Morton, and William Stromgren for a winger role in Calgary’s bottom six. Pelletier has the most NHL experience of the bunch, with 10 points in 37 career games narrowly beating out Coronato’s nine points in 35 games.
Meanwhile, Calgary still boasts nearly $20MM in projected cap space entering the season, per PuckPedia. They’ll have five more RFAs to negotiate with – but could still afford to spend lavishly on high-upside try-outs. They’ve already tapped into that market a bit, signing Tyson Barrie to a PTO that’s expected to turn into a one-year contract.
Prospect Notes: Heidt, Dumais, Dach, Frondell
Minnesota Wild GM Bill Guerin didn’t rule out the chances of top prospect Riley Heidt making the opening night roster in an interview with The Athletic’s Joe Smith. Guerin said, “We have guys that still don’t need waivers… If Riley plays so well that he pushes himself on the team, then great. That’s what it’s about. It’s about competition.” Smith went on to acknowledge the hefty jump Heidt would need to leapfrog other prospects like Liam Ohgren and Marat Khusnutdinov – with Guerin acknowledging the former as someone Minnesota expects to make the NHL roster.
Heidt is coming off a dazzling season with the WHL’s Prince George Cougars, ranking third in league scoring with 117 points in 66 games. He also ranked eighth with 711 faceoff wins, winning at an effective 51.8 percent. Heidt set career highs across the board but still seems a step behind the NHL lineup. He’d otherwise be bound for a fourth WHL season, though Minnesota could award him up to nine regular-season games to help inform their decision.
Other notes from across the prospect world:
- Top Columbus Blue Jackets prospect Jordan Dumais won’t be taking part in this weekend’s NHL Prospects Challenge, per The Athletic’s Aaron Portzline, who shares the winger has been designated with a lower-body injury. Dumais isn’t expected to participate in the start of training camp, either. It isn’t clear if this is related to the lower abdominal surgery Dumais underwent in January, which held him out of the entire second half of the season. He’s been as productive as they come in the QMJHL, recording 325 points across 193 games and four seasons with the Halifax Mooseheads. He’ll get a chance to translate that scoring to the pro level this season – that is, when he’s healed from that’s delaying his pre-season start.
- Chicago Blackhawks prospect Colton Dach shared that he has his sights set on earning an NHL roster spot, telling The Athletic’s Mark Lazerus that he feels he could’ve earned one by now had he not been injured. Dach notably missed extended time with a concussion this season, after a sucker punch from Milwaukee’s Zachary L’Heureux. Small absences cut into Dach’s first pro season, though he still impressed with 27 points in 48 AHL games. Dach has now been heavily limited by injuries in the last two seasons, making a spot on the Opening Day roster a longshot – though Dach could earn his way into an NHL call-up later this year if he continues to stand strong in the minors.
- Top 2025 NHL Draft prospect Anton Frondell is set to undergo knee surgery, shares Djugardens IF insider Robin Fredriksson. No timeline for a return has been revealed. It’s Frondell’s second major lower-body injury in as many years, after a separate injury limited his 2023-24 campaign to just 42 league games. Frondell impressed when he did play, notably scoring 39 points in 29 U20 games, and adding seven points in seven games at the World U17 Hockey Challenge. His name has appeared near the very top of early 2025 Draft rankings, though another significant injury could make him an early faller.
Metropolitan Notes: Filmon, Hurricanes, Sotheran
Devils prospect Josh Filmon won’t participate in rookie camp and is doubtful for main training camp after being listed as week-to-week with an upper-body injury, per the team’s Amanda Stein. The 20-year-old left-winger will report to the AHL’s Utica Comets for his first professional campaign when he’s cleared to play, and Comets bench boss Kevin Dineen said they haven’t yet ruled him out for the start of the regular season.
Filmon, a Winnipeg native, went 166th overall to New Jersey in the sixth round of the 2022 draft. The 6’3″, 170-lb forward has been a premier offensive threat for the Swift Current Broncos of the Western Hockey League in his first two post-draft seasons, totaling 67 points (27 G, 40 A) in 64 games with a +16 rating last season.
Here are a few more odds and ends from around the Metropolitan Division:
- The Hurricanes’ home will have a new name this season after the club has reached a 10-year arena naming rights agreement with the multinational technology company Lenovo, the team announced. The arena, known as PNC Arena since 2012, will now be named the Lenovo Center through at least the 2033-34 season. The arena opened for the 1999-00 season, the Hurricanes’ third in Carolina after relocating from Hartford, and was initially named the Raleigh Entertainment & Sports Arena before becoming the RBC Center in 2002.
- Flyers defense prospect Carter Sotheran is limited in rookie camp activities while dealing with a flare-up of Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, he told Charlie O’Connor of PHLY Sports. According to the Mayo Clinic, the condition results in “an extra pathway for signals to travel between the heart’s upper and lower chambers,” which can cause a fast or irregular heartbeat. Sotheran, 19, said he’s been dealing with the condition for the past four years and hopes to play in some of the Flyers’ rookie tournament contests over the weekend or next week. The 2023 fifth-round pick has not yet signed his entry-level contract and will return to the WHL’s Portland Winterhawks for his third season of junior hockey shortly.
Luke Hughes Out Six To Eight Weeks With Shoulder Injury
Devils defenseman Luke Hughes is expected to miss training camp, preseason, and the start of the regular season after injuring his left shoulder while training earlier this month.
According to an announcement from the team, he’ll miss between six and eight weeks. That puts his season debut for New Jersey sometime during late October or early November.
It’s a tough break for both the Devils and the 21-year-old, who’s a pending restricted free agent entering the final season of his entry-level contract. He’s eligible to sign an extension at any time, and it’ll likely be a costly one after he led New Jersey defenders in scoring last season with 47 points (9 G, 38 A) in 82 games and finished third in Calder Trophy voting, losing out on Rookie of the Year honors to Connor Bedard and finishing well short of Wild counterpart Brock Faber for second place.
The fourth overall pick in the 2021 draft, Hughes is well on his way to joining his brother Jack as a core piece in the Garden State for years to come. The New Hampshire native has some work to do defensively before he’s a proper top-pairing option, finishing third-worst on the team with a -25 rating, but his 55% shot attempt share and 52.3 expected goals share at even strength were decent in sheltered offensive usage. Before turning pro with the Devils to close the 2022-23 campaign, Hughes’ 48 points in 39 games from the University of Michigan blue line helped them to a second straight Big 10 championship.
The left-shot defender is slated for second-pairing duties when healthy, allowing a more stay-at-home partner to complement a healthy Dougie Hamilton on the team’s top pairing. That spot will be up for grabs in training camp now, though, at least for the first few weeks of the campaign. New head coach Sheldon Keefe has plenty of options, but the most likely is a shutdown duo of free agent additions, Brenden Dillon and Brett Pesce, backing up Hamilton and his partner.
If Hughes doesn’t miss enough time to be eligible for long-term injured reserve, that could create complications for a Devils team that will likely be capped out after coming to an agreement with RFA forward Dawson Mercer. Putting Hughes on standard IR compared to LTIR could result in New Jersey not carrying an extra defenseman until he returns to health. His injury should provide plenty of opportunity early on for Johnathan Kovacevic, who was projected to start the year as the Devils’ No. 7 defender after being acquired from the Canadiens in June.
Alex Stalock Likely To Retire
Veteran netminder Alex Stalock is joining the Sharks’ television broadcast crew this upcoming season, the team announced (via Max Miller of The Hockey News). The move likely signals the end of his 15-year professional career.
Stalock, who spent last season in the Ducks organization, was a finalist for the Masterton Trophy in 2023 after working his way back into a regular NHL role with the Blackhawks. The 37-year-old’s career nearly came to an end in 2020 after developing myocarditis after contracting COVID-19, causing him to spend all of the 2020-21 campaign on long-term injured reserve. He returned the following season in a depth/minor-league role for the Oilers and Sharks before serving as Chicago’s full-time backup in 2022-23.
The San Jose 2005 fourth-round pick signed a one-year, $800K deal with Anaheim last summer to provide competition to prospect Lukáš Dostál for the backup role, a job that the young Czech won handily in camp. Anaheim waived Stalock to begin the season and assigned him to the AHL’s San Diego Gulls, where he spent most of the campaign aside from a handful of emergency call-ups that didn’t result in any NHL action. He recorded a 3.82 GAA, .888 SV%, and a 2-9-2 record in 15 appearances with San Diego.
Stalock played in parts of 11 NHL seasons with the Sharks, Wild, and Blackhawks from 2010 to 2023. In 179 regular-season games, he held a 70-65-20 record with 11 shutouts, a 2.70 GAA, and a .908 SV%.
He had also had an exemplary career as a minor-league starter, posting a 2.70 GAA, .909 SV%, 12 shutouts, and a 110-87-26 record in 232 AHL games across eight seasons – mostly for the Sharks’ affiliates in San Jose and Worcester.
The St. Paul, Minnesota native also had a spectacular collegiate stint, guiding the University of Minnesota-Duluth to a conference championship in his junior season with a 2.13 GAA, .924 SV%, five shutouts, and a 21-13-8 record in 42 appearances. All of us at PHR wish Stalock the best as he moves up from the ice to the broadcasting booth.
Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.
Atlantic Notes: Lysell, Marchand, Laine
The Bruins opened rookie camp today without 2021 first-round pick Fabian Lysell. That’s by design, however, writes Fluto Shinzawa of The Athletic. AHL Providence head coach Ryan Mougenel told Shinzawa that the organization wants Lysell “extremely ready” when veterans report to training camp next Wednesday, signaling Boston’s front office fully intends on Lysell pushing for a spot on the opening night roster.
“He knows how well he can play,” general manager Don Sweeney told Shinzawa. “He knows how much we were proud of the steps he had taken. He had a good camp last year. He’s just still got to continue to work on his complete game. One-on-one skills stuff and some of the stuff he can do to change a game are really good.”
Lysell, 21, is entering his third professional season but has yet to make his NHL debut. He’s been tearing up the farm under Mougenel in Providence, though. He finished fourth on the team in scoring last season with 50 points (15 goals, 35 assists) in 56 games.
The 21st overall pick three years ago remains a high-upside playmaking option for Boston at right-wing – a current position of weakness after Jake DeBrusk left for the Canucks in free agency. He’ll look to push players like Justin Brazeau, Trent Frederic, or Morgan Geekie down the depth chart to start the Bruins’ season opener in a second or third-line role.
There’s more from the Atlantic Division:
- Brad Marchand reaffirmed to reporters today that he expects to be ready for the Bruins’ season opener on Oct. 8 in Florida after undergoing a trio of offseason surgeries, per Steve Conroy of the Boston Herald. The captain revealed his injuries to the media early last week, disclosing that he underwent elbow, abdominal, and groin procedures over the past few months.
- Canadiens AHL head coach Pascal Vincent told “The Sick Podcast” with Tony Marinaro that fresh trade acquisition Patrik Laine, whom he oversaw with the Blue Jackets last season, is the “most talented player he’s ever coached” (X link). It’s undoubtedly a bold assessment to make after Laine played just 18 games last season, Vincent’s only campaign at the helm in Columbus, but it gives a bit of optimism that the Habs have the internal tools to help Laine rediscover his 30-to-45-goal potential after an incredibly trying 2023-24 season for the Finnish winger.
Islanders Sign Keith Kinkaid To PTO
The Islanders will have free agent goaltender Keith Kinkaid in training camp on a professional tryout contract, relays Stefen Rosner of The Hockey News.
Kinkaid, 35, is on the UFA market for the fifth time in the past six years. He spent last season on a two-way deal with the Devils, where he spent six of his 10 NHL seasons, but didn’t play in the organization. He was instead loaned out to the AHL’s Chicago Wolves, the minor league’s lone non-affiliated franchise last season, where he had a 3.54 GAA, .880 SV%, and an 8-14-2 record in 24 appearances.
An undrafted free agent signing by New Jersey back in 2011, Kinkaid was a solid backup/1B option during his peak in the Garden State but hasn’t been an NHL regular since being traded to the Blue Jackets at the 2019 trade deadline. He’s made 14 NHL starts and four relief appearances over the past five seasons and didn’t see NHL ice in 2023-24.
The Long Island native will now aid his hometown team in camp. Inexplicably, the veteran of 13 professional seasons and 169 NHL games is on the Isles’ rookie camp roster, where he’ll be providing insurance for 21-year-old prospect Tristan Lennox, who’s reportedly a bit banged up and might not be fully ready to go in the run-up to veterans reporting to training camp next Wednesday.
In those 169 career appearances, Kinkaid has a 70-58-21 record, eight shutouts, a 2.91 GAA, and a .905 SV%. 151 of those games came in a Devils uniform, although he’s also logged time between the pipes for the Canadiens, Rangers, Bruins, and Avalanche in the past few years.
The Islanders already have six goaltenders signed, so the likelihood of Kinkaid landing a contract from this PTO appears slim. The team already acquired a veteran presence for their AHL affiliate, the Bridgeport Islanders, bringing in former Senator Marcus Högberg on a two-year deal. Lennox and a pair of other contracted prospects in their early 20s (Jakub Skarek, Henrik Tikkanen) will also compete for reps in Bridgeport.