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Lightning Re-Sign Gabriel Fortier To Two-Way Deal

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The Lightning have re-signed forward Gabriel Fortier to a one-year, two-way contract, the team announced today. PuckPedia reports the deal carries a cap hit of $775K and boasts an AHL salary of $100K with a $150K guarantee.

Fortier, 24, will reprise his role as a solid depth piece for the club in AHL Syracuse next season. While he has parlayed a second-round choice by the Lightning in 2018 into a solid professional career within the organization, he hasn’t seen much NHL time. He’s got 11 games to his name, 10 of which came in the 2021-22 season. His last NHL appearance was over a year and a half ago, coming on October 15, 2022.

He does have a goal and -2 rating in those games, along with 14 shots. The 5’10” Quebec native was a solid producer in junior hockey with the Baie-Comeau Drakkar and the Moncton Wildcats of the QMJHL, but his offensive production in the AHL has been stagnant at best over the past four seasons. Fortier set a career-high in goals (14), points (30), and games played (72) with Syracuse in 2021-22 and hasn’t managed to elevate his production above that of a middle-six AHL forward. Last season, he scored 13 goals and 26 points in 62 games for the Crunch, adding a goal and four assists in eight playoff games.

Fortier, who was set to become a restricted free agent, will remain under consideration for brief NHL recalls next season but appears unlikely to challenge for a spot out of camp. He was placed on waivers to begin last season and cleared, spending the entire season on the Syracuse roster.

He spent this season on a two-way deal carrying a $775K cap hit with a $100K minors salary and $125K guarantee. The extension marks a raise of at least $50K, considering he didn’t spend any time on the NHL roster in 2023-24.

Of the Lightning’s 2018 class, only Fortier and Cole Koepke have played NHL games for the club. Netminder Magnus Chrona was a fifth-round pick, but his only NHL experience has come with the Sharks. He’s the second member of the 2018 second round to sign a deal today, joining Flyers defenseman Adam Ginning.

Fortier becomes the 34th player under contract for the Lightning next season. In the likely event he plays fewer than 69 regular-season games, he’ll reach UFA status early next summer via Group VI designation.

Flyers Sign Adam Ginning To Two-Year Extension

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The Flyers have re-signed defenseman Adam Ginning to a two-year contract extension with a cap hit of $787.5K, according to a team announcement Monday. It’s a two-way deal in 2024-25 ($775K NHL/$200K AHL) before converting to a one-way deal paying him $800K for 2025-26, per PuckPedia.

Ginning, 24, saw a bit of extended NHL action near the end of the season. After his NHL debut was his lone appearance for the Flyers in 2022-23, he suited up nine times for the big-league club this season. His late-season call-ups saw him record his first NHL point, a goal in a 6-2 loss to the Blue Jackets on April 6.

Averaging 14:09 per game, the Swedish shutdown prospect put up good possession metrics in his sheltered minutes, controlling 55.7% of shot attempts and 59.4% of expected goals when on the ice at even strength, per Hockey Reference. Both were above the team average. That, plus his +24 rating with AHL Lehigh Valley one year ago, indicates the 2018 second-round pick still has NHL upside.

It was an important end to the season for both parties, with Ginning earning himself a fair chunk of guaranteed cash in this deal, even if he does end up playing most of it in the minors. The Flyers also avoid the threat of losing the pending restricted free agent to a Swedish Hockey League contract, something Charlie O’Connor of PHLY Sports reports he was considering before his recall.

The left-shot blue liner will remain waiver-exempt throughout next season unless he plays more than 60 games. No matter what, though, he loses his waiver exemption in the second year of the deal. He’ll likely be a restricted free agent again at the end of this contract, but if he fails to get into 80 NHL games by the time it expires, he’ll qualify for unrestricted free agency via Group VI status.

Ginning was the third pick of a 2018 class that’s paid some dividends for the Flyers, including first-rounder Joel Farabee selecting goaltender Samuel Ersson in the fifth round. Their first selection, Jay O’Brien at 13th overall, was never signed and yielded them a compensatory second-round selection in the draft later this month. Their only other selection that year to play NHL games so far is defenseman Jack St. Ivany, who they didn’t sign coming out of college and lost in free agency to the cross-state rival Penguins.

He’ll enter training camp this fall as a candidate to crack the opening night roster. The Flyers now have 40 players signed to standard contracts next season, with Bobby Brink and Yegor Zamula still left as notable RFAs.

Buyout Candidate: Conor Sheary

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While the Lightning are the most successful franchise of the last 10 years, back-to-back first-round losses have them at risk of slipping into mediocrity. That’s exacerbated by a salary cap crunch this summer that, if not handled with care, could result in the loss of captain Steven Stamkos to free agency.

General manager Julien BriseBois has no intention of letting his team slip out of contention anytime soon. He’s already made one move to fill out his roster this summer, re-acquiring Stanley Cup champion defenseman Ryan McDonagh from the Predators shortly after both teams were eliminated from the playoffs.

Aside from Stamkos and future Hall-of-Famer Victor Hedman, the Bolts have much of their core signed long-term. Erik Černák, Anthony Cirelli, Brandon Hagel, Brayden Point and Mikhail Sergachev are all signed through at least 2030 with cap hits north of $5MM. Nikita Kucherov and Andrei Vasilevskiy have matching $9.5MM cap hits through 2027 and 2028, respectively. While it could likely change as the salary cap rises, none of them are significant bargains for what they’ve contributed the past couple of seasons, aside from Kucherov and Point.

The salary cap jumping to $88MM next season does offer BriseBois some much-needed flexibility, but they do still have just $5.335MM in projected space with at least three roster spots to fill if they want to have any sort of in-season wiggle room. Even with a significant discount, that’s likely not enough to sign anyone other than Stamkos, posing an obvious issue.

Tampa doesn’t have a recent history of buyouts, but it could be a decent last-ditch way to shed ill-advised cap hit allocation. In a piece for The Athletic on Monday, Harman Dayal and Thomas Drance name Lightning winger Conor Sheary a player to watch as the first window to buy out players, which opens 48 hours after the Stanley Cup Final ends, approaches.

[RELATED: 2024 Key Offseason Dates]

Often a strong secondary scoring threat throughout a 500-plus game career with the Capitals, Penguins and Sabres, Sheary became a UFA last summer. BriseBois pounced, hoping to add a cost-effective top-nine scoring option while inking him to a three-year, $6MM deal ($2MM AAV) with trade protection. The 32-year-old flamed out in Tampa, though, limited to just four goals and 15 points in 57 games on the year after scoring double-digit goals for the last seven years. He was a frequent healthy scratch near the end of the regular season and didn’t play at all in their first-round loss to the Panthers.

Sheary’s role was limited under head coach Jon Cooper. His 11:06 average time on ice was the lowest since his rookie season. There’s likely some bounceback potential there, as indicated by his career-low 8.0% shooting rate, but the risk of him declining further isn’t one the cap-strapped Lightning can afford to take.

Trading him and removing the final two years of his contract would be ideal, but a 16-team trade list complicates things. A buyout would at least reduce his cap hit from $2MM to $583K next season, opening up an additional $1.417MM in space, per CapFriendly. That’s easily enough to add a cost-effective depth option on the UFA market and opens up additional flexibility for a Stamkos extension.

The rest of the buyout isn’t awful, either. It would carry a $1.083MM hit in 2025-26, still saving the Bolts over $900K in the final season of his deal, before a sub-league minimum penalty of $583K in 2026-27 and 2027-28.

Overseas Signings: Poirier, Rubins, Haapala, Rodewald

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After being picked 22nd overall by the Flames in the 2013 draft, things never worked out for Emile Poirier in the NHL. He managed only one assist in eight games during the 2014-15 and 2015-16 seasons and didn’t receive a qualifying offer when his entry-level contract expired in 2018.

Poirier spent the next two seasons on a minor-league contract with the AHL’s Manitoba Moose before heading overseas at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. He’s racked up many airline rewards miles in the few years since, switching European leagues every season. Now 29, he’s on the move again, inking a one-year deal with Nybro Vikings IF of the Swedish second-tier HockeyAllsvenskan.

The Montreal-born forward has been decently productive in Europe but has been at his peak in the Slovak Extraliga. There, he’s averaged nearly a point per game across two different teams during stints in the 2020-21 and 2023-24 seasons. Poirier spent last season with HC Slovan Bratislava, and although injuries limited him to 28 games, he still rattled off 14 goals and 13 assists for 27 points.

He has played briefly in Sweden before, suiting up in 11 games for Djurgårdens IF, then in the Swedish Hockey League, to end the 2021-22 campaign. Poirier had three goals and two assists to end the season but went without a point in three relegation games as the Stockholm-based club was relegated to the HockeyAllsvenskan, where they remain entering 2024-25.

In Nybro, Poirier joins a club in just their second season at the second tier since 2009. They’ve spent much of their existence in the third tier of the Swedish hockey pyramid, now known as HockeyEttan. The Vikings impressed in their first season back in the HockeyAllsvenskan, going 20-22-7-3 and finishing 27 points out of the relegation zone.

Other notable European signings over the past few days with NHL pedigree:

  • Former Maple Leafs defenseman Kristiāns Rubīns has signed a one-year contract with HC Plzeň of the Czech Extraliga. The 26-year-old Latvian went undrafted after coming to North America to finish his junior career with the Medicine Hat Tigers of the Western Hockey League but stuck it out and inked a minor-league deal with the Toronto Marlies in hopes of one day making the jump to the NHL. It paid off, yielding an entry-level contract in 2020 before making his NHL debut in 2021-22, posting a -2 rating and 4 PIMs while averaging 11:45 per game across a three-game stint. However, it wasn’t enough for the Leafs to issue him a qualifying offer, and he became a free agent the following summer. After spending 2022-23 on a two-way deal with the Senators and Flames, he headed to Europe last summer to play for the SHL’s MoDo Hockey. There, the 6’5″ defender posted 10 points in 44 games in a top-four role. He now takes his services to Czechia for the first time in his career, joining a blue line that includes projected 2024 first-round pick Adam Jiříček.
  • One-time Panthers winger Henrik Haapala will play in Sweden for the first time in his lengthy professional career next season, inking a one-year pact with the SHL’s Malmö Redhawks. The undersized but dynamic playmaking winger has an illustrious career in his native Finland that includes one Liiga bronze medal, three silver medals, and two championships. His title-winning 2016-17 season with Tappara saw him lead the league in scoring with 45 assists and 60 points in 51 games, earning him his first NHL shot with Florida the following season. However, Haapala spent most of the year in the minors and only managed five NHL appearances, recording a lone assist. Now 30, he had 18 points in 28 Swiss National League games last season, split between Genève-Servette and Lausanne HC.
  • Former Senators depth forward Jack Rodewald is remaining in Russia’s Kontinental Hockey League next season on a one-year deal with Admiral Vladivostok. The 30-year-old Winnipeg native played 10 NHL games with the Sens from 2017 to 2019 but failed to record a point and averaged just 7:09 per game. Since heading to Europe in 2020, he’s suited up for Czechia’s HC Oceláři Třinec, Finland’s TPS, and the KHL’s Kunlun Red Star and Traktor Chelyabinsk. He split last season between Kunlun and Traktor, recording eight goals and 21 points in 59 contests.

Five Key Stories: 6/10/24 – 6/16/24

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The playoffs will last a little longer now with Edmonton staying alive on Saturday night.  Even so, offseason activity round the league is starting to pick up, including Arizona’s relocation to Utah being made official.  Here’s a rundown of the most notable news from the week that was.

Warsofsky Gets Promoted: After a long coaching search, the Sharks decided that the best option to take over behind the bench is someone who was already there.  The team announced that they’ve promoted assistant coach Ryan Warsofsky to the top role.  Warsofsky was considered for the top job a couple of years ago but was passed over for David Quinn.  San Jose struggled as expected over the past two seasons in the midst of a full-scale rebuild and they’ll be hoping to fare better under their rookie head coach.  While this is Warsofsky’s first time running an NHL team, he has previous experience running a bench having been a head coach at both the AHL and ECHL levels.

Steen To Become A GM: Long-time NHL forward Alex Steen hasn’t been retired for long but he is about to take on a big front office job.  The Blues have announced that Steen will become their new GM starting in the 2026-27 season.  Current GM Doug Armstrong, who was under contract for the next two years, inked a three-year extension through 2028-29 as their president of hockey operations, a title he has held since 2013.  Steen was a consultant for St. Louis this season and will now have the next two years to get ready to take over the top job.  Armstrong, meanwhile, has been the GM for the Blues for the past 14 seasons with St. Louis making ten playoff appearances including their first-ever Stanley Cup in 2019.

Laine In Play: While there will be several big-name wingers available in free agency in a couple of weeks, it appears as if one notable winger is in play on the trade front as the Blue Jackets and Patrik Laine are in agreement that a change of scenery would be beneficial.  The 26-year-old was limited to just 18 games this season between injuries and spending time in the NHL/NHLPA Player Assistance Program where he has been since January.  When he’s at his best, Laine is one of the more dangerous scoring threats in the NHL but he has played in just 129 games over the past three seasons combined.  Laine has two years left on his contract with an $8.7MM AAV, a price tag that will be tricky for a lot of teams to fit in, even with the $4.5MM increase in the salary cap.

Kakko Signs Early: After a tough season, Rangers winger Kaapo Kakko was going to have a hard time making a case for a raise.  With that in mind, the two sides settled on a one-year, $2.4MM agreement, the exact amount of what his qualifying offer would have been.  The 23-year-old notched just 13 goals and six assists in 61 games in 2023-24, his point total dropping by a little more than half from the year before.  The early contract gives both sides some certainty moving forward while if there are teams interested in acquiring the 2019 second-overall selection, the fact they know what his next contract will likely help in those trade discussions.

Carolina Defensive Deals: The Hurricanes have several pending unrestricted free agents but they were able to cut down that list by one, reaching a three-year, $9MM extension with defenseman Jalen Chatfield.  The 28-year-old has become a full-time option on Carolina’s third pairing over the last couple of years and had a career-best eight goals and 14 assists in 72 games this season.  Chatfield had played on a league minimum contract the last two seasons so this is certainly a significant raise for him.  With four other rearguards set to hit the open market next month, Chatfield should be in line for a bigger role next season.

Meanwhile, while he’s not eligible to sign an extension until the calendar turns to July, it appears a tentative agreement is in place between Jaccob Slavin and the Hurricanes.  Terms of the reported deal have not been disclosed.  The 30-year-old has been one of the anchors on Carolina’s back end for the past nine years, logging over 20 minutes a night in all of those while being one of the top defensive defenders.  He has one year left on his current contract which carries a $5.3MM price tag and it’s fair to suggest he’ll be getting a considerable increase when he puts pen to paper on this deal next month.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Offseason Checklist: Boston Bruins

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The offseason has arrived for all but the two teams who are still taking part in the playoffs.  For the rest, it’s time to examine what they will need to accomplish over the coming months.  Next up is a look at Boston.

There were some question marks surrounding the Bruins heading into the season after they lost both Patrice Bergeron and David Krejci.  However, they nearly won the Atlantic Division once again to bring their playoff streak to eight straight years.  Boston got past Toronto in the opening round before falling to Florida in the second round.  Armed with cap and roster flexibility for the first time in a while, GM Don Sweeney has a chance to reshape the roster or to keep the bulk of the core together.  Here’s what should be on their to-do list in the coming weeks.

Add Impact Center

After losing their top two middlemen from the year before, the Bruins didn’t do a whole lot to replace them.  Morgan Geekie came over after being non-tendered by Seattle while John Beecher and Matthew Poitras came up from the minors and the OHL respectively to largely fill the other vacancy.  In the meantime, Charlie Coyle and Pavel Zacha covered the tough minutes.  All things considered, they cobbled together a solution relatively well given their cap constraints.

Now they don’t have those constraints; they have over $21MM in cap room, per CapFriendly.  They now have an opportunity – and a need – to try to address that.  While their internal options fared well, they’re not a group of middlemen that a contender typically has.

There aren’t any true number one options on the open market this summer but there are some proven second options that can at least give them some more impactful depth.  They were speculatively linked to Elias Lindholm last summer and it stands to reason they’ll have interest in someone who can cover the hard two-way minutes like Bergeron used to.

Among the secondary options are Chandler Stephenson, Sean Monahan, and Matt Duchene.  All three have had success on the second line recently and have some upside at the offensive end.  They might not produce more than the 60 and 59 points that Coyle and Zacha put up but a third middleman in that range would lengthen their offense and hedge against some injuries.

In theory, they could try to trade for a center but given the dearth of trade assets they have (a byproduct of going for it regularly), it’s hard to see them putting together a package that could land a top-six piece so turning to free agency should be the way they go.

Goalie Decisions

For the last couple of years, the Bruins have had a high-end goalie tandem between Jeremy Swayman and Linus Ullmark, allowing them to have starting-level goaltending on a nightly basis.  However, it’s about to become a luxury that’s too expensive for them to afford.

Swayman and the Bruins couldn’t agree on a contract last season, resulting in the two sides going to arbitration where he was awarded $3.475MM.  Now, with another strong campaign under his belt, Swayman’s camp has a much better case this time around and will be heading for another big raise.  Another one-year deal would push past the $5MM mark but it’s evident that both sides will want to get a longer-term agreement done this time around.  A deal that buys multiple years of club control should cost at least $6MM while a max-term agreement probably pushes past $7MM, doubling his price from this season.

With that type of commitment to Swayman, Ullmark becomes a very expensive second option with one year and $5MM left on his deal.  While they have enough cap room to carry both, that’s not necessarily the best use of their cap space with the other spots they’ll be looking to fill on their roster.  That means they’ll be turning to the trade market as they had looked to back at the trade deadline when Ullmark is believed to have nixed a trade with his partial protection.

Ullmark will still have the ability to block a trade to nearly half the league this summer so it’s not a given that something will get done with Boston’s preferred option.  It’s unfortunate for them that Ullmark will be in the market at a time where he’s not likely to be viewed as the number one option available and, in general, goalies don’t typically yield high-end returns too frequently.  But they should find the best offer they can get in the next couple of weeks to get this taken care of before free agency opens up as they’ll then know if they were able to fill a need with the swap or, if it’s a futures-based package, if they’ll have other assets to trade to fill one of those needs.

Sweeney will also have to decide if they’ll go with rookie Brandon Bussi as the second-string option behind Swayman next season or if they want to bring in a more experienced veteran.  If they don’t get a veteran to serve as the backup in the NHL, it wouldn’t be surprising to see them go after a veteran third-stringer to partner with Michael DiPietro in the minors.

Re-Sign Or Replace DeBrusk

Jake DeBrusk’s future with the Bruins has been murky for several years, going back to his trade request, extension, and the eventual rescinding of that request.  But even after that time, his name was floated out as potential salary-matching ballast in hypothetical scenarios where Boston was landing a more impactful winger or help down the middle.

One way or the other, the uncertainty is coming to an end over the next couple of weeks.  DeBrusk is now a pending unrestricted free agent and is one of the younger players to hit the open market next month.  Accordingly, the time has come for the Bruins to decide if he’s part of their future plans which would require a long-term commitment and remove him from any trade speculation.  Alternatively, he’ll be parting ways in early July and Sweeney will be on the lookout for a replacement.

The 27-year-old has reached the 40-point mark five times in his seven-year career but has only hit the 50-point plateau once back in 2022-23.  Still, he’s in line for a sizable raise from the $4MM he made over the past two seasons.  A long-term agreement could conceivably push past $6MM if the open market is as strong as some are making it out to be.  Boston has the money to pay that if they want or they could take that offer and look at some other options on the open market.

There are a few wingers who should check in around that price point in free agency.  Tyler Toffoli, Vladimir Tarasenko, and David Perron are shorter-term options if they don’t want to make a long-term commitment at that spot while Teuvo Teravainen and Tyler Bertuzzi (someone who has some familiarity with the team already) could command longer-term agreements.  Viktor Arvidsson could be a good fit as well but coming off an injury-prone year, he might want just a one-year deal to bolster his market value for 2025-26.  Either way, whether it’s re-signing or replacing DeBrusk, the Bruins have a big contract to hand out on the wing.

Add Depth

Last summer, the Bruins had several roster spots to fill for cheap, resulting in a lot of short-term contracts for role players.  Included among those were James van Riemsdyk, Danton Heinen, Milan Lucic, and Kevin Shattenkirk, all of whom are set to return to the open market this summer so Sweeney will likely be looking to follow a similar script this time around.

Up front, they have at least two and arguably as many as four spots to fill as Pat Maroon is also a pending UFA.  They won’t necessarily be as limited in terms of having to shop for players who will accept close to the league minimum although if they are able to land an impact center and either keep or replace DeBrusk, they will have to go bargain-hunting at some point.  The good news for them is that there will be plenty of players that will be in that price range.  They may not all sign quickly but Sweeney should be able to fill those spots.

On the back end, with Mason Lohrei showing that he’s ready for full-time NHL duty, the acquisition of Andrew Peeke at the trade deadline, and Parker Wotherspoon holding his own, they really only have to fill one spot even with Shattenkirk, Matt Grzelcyk, and Derek Forbort all heading for the open market.  As a result, they could target someone a little higher in price that could play in a fourth or fifth role.  It also wouldn’t be shocking to see an extra depth defender added to battle for the seventh spot.  Again, there are a lot of blueliners who fit into these buckets so they should be able to take care of this one fairly easily.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Senators Expected To Trade Egor Sokolov This Summer

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Over the past few years, Egor Sokolov has been one of Ottawa’s top-performing AHL players but it hasn’t resulted in much of an opportunity to play at the top level.  As a result, while he is expected to receive a qualifying offer later this month, Postmedia’s Bruce Garrioch reports that the expectation is that the Senators will move the winger at some point this summer.

The 24-year-old went undrafted in his first two years of eligibility before a breakout year with QMJHL Cape Breton in 2019-20 boosted his stock to the point where he was picked in the second round in 2020, going 60th overall.  He signed his entry-level contract soon after and has played in Ottawa’s system since then.

This past season, Sokolov played in 71 games with AHL Belleville, recording 21 goals and 25 assists.  However, it was the first time since his rookie year (which was shortened by the pandemic) that he failed to reach the 50-point mark.  As a result, he wasn’t recalled at all during the season after clearing waivers during training camp.

Despite that, Sokolov still has 13 career NHL appearances under his belt having spent time with the big club in both 2021-22 and 2022-23.  Overall, he has a goal and an assist in those games while logging a little more than nine minutes a night on average.

Sokolov will be arbitration-eligible for the first time this summer although with the limited NHL action, it’s unlikely he’d be able to command much more than the minimum salary.  But as a 6’4 winger with a reasonable track record of success in the minors, there should be a team or two interested in taking a longer look at him in a move that would likely amount to a swap of AHL players in need of a change of scenery.

Evening Notes: Mittelstadt, Sabres, Goodrow

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Casey Mittelstadt proved to be one of the most impactful acquisitions of the Trade Deadline, joining the Avalanche in a one-for-one swap with defenseman Bowen Byram. Mittelstadt immediately stepped into a role as Colorado’s second-line center, scoring a confident 19 points in 29 games with the Avalanche between the regular season and playoffs. He was just what the doctor ordered for an Avalanche team at risk of lacking depth, but the Avalanche will now face the dreaded hurdle of having to work out his next contract. Corey Masisak of The Denver Post is confident the team will be able to retain Mittelstadt’s services, projecting the centerman could sign a middle-ground deal close to five years and $5MM in yearly cap hit.

Masisak came to these numbers while comparing Mittelstadt to the contracts Jared McCann and Pavel Buchnevich are currently on. McCann signed the five-year, $25MM deal Masisak projects for Mittelstadt, earning it after a stout 27 goals and 50 points in 74 games with the inaugural Seattle Kraken. Buchnevich carries a pricier $5.8MM price tag, though his deal ran for just four years. As pointed out by Masisak, each of Mittelstadt, McCann, and Buchnevich scored at similar paces – each above 0.70 points per game – in the two seasons leading up to their deals.

Other notes from around the league:

  • The Buffalo Sabres could be convinced to move one of their second-tier prospects to find a player that fits their system, shares Lance Lysowski of the Buffalo News. Lysowski mentions Isak Rosen, Viktor Neuchev, and Nikita Novikov among six options the Sabres could choose from in trade talks. The Sabres have already mentioned they’re open to trading the 11th overall pick and are now adding to their wallet ahead of the 2024 NHL Draft.
  • New York Rangers forward Barclay Goodrow could be a candidate for a buyout when the buyout window opens, shares Larry Brooks of the New York Post. Brooks noted Goodrow’s meager scoring with New York, including his limited 12 points in 80 games this season. Goodrow has made up for that meager scoring with a strong postseason, posting a career-high eight points in 16 games in a flurry of postseason success that’s beginning to define Goodrow’s game. He’s appeared in 97 playoff games over the course of his career, and while he’s totaled just 24 points in those appearances, he’s found a way to show up in pivotal moments. That clutch factor could make him a strong candidate to join a new playoff-caliber team should the Rangers decide to part ways with him this summer.

Poll: Who Will Win The 2024 Conn Smythe Trophy?

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The Edmonton Oilers have finally punched back in the Stanley Cup Finals, landing the uppercut of an 8-1 win to push off the announcement of a Stanley Cup champion for at least one more game. It was just the ninth time that a team has scored eight or more goals in the Stanley Cup Finals – a loss that stings a little extra for the Panthers, who also allowed the Vegas Golden Knights to score a record-setting nine goals in last year’s Cup-clinching Game 5. Edmonton achieved the feat on the back of a historic performance from superstar Connor McDavid who, with three assists in Game 4, reached 32 assists to break Wayne Gretzky’s record for assists in a single postseason. McDavid’s record-breaking performance, as well as Sergei Bobrovsky’s Cup Finals benching, throws a major wrench into the list of Conn Smythe Trophy candidates, regardless of the Cup winner.

In a debate between a stifling McDavid and a struggling Bobrovsky, it seems Aleksander Barkov would be the de facto beneficiary. Barkov – the reigning Selke Trophy winner – has closely shadowed McDavid for most of the Cup finals so far, doing as well as any player could to keep McDavid close before Florida’s breakdown in Game 4. Barkov has added four points in four Cup finals games as well, bringing his postseason totals up to a team-leading 21 points in 21 games. Barkov has been perhaps the biggest piece of Florida’s success both this postseason and across the last few seasons as a whole. Barkov has shown elite two-way ability throughout this postseason, likely earning him a spot above any other Panthers skater in the Conn Smythe debate. But there’s no arguing the hefty impact Bobrovsky has brought to these playoffs. He was boasting a .916 save percentage through 20 games before his abhorrent Game 4, when he allowed five goals on just 17 shots. Bobrovsky is also a finalist for the Vezina Trophy and could cement a ’Hall of Fame’ legacy with a win of both the Vezina and the Cup.

Of course, the Oilers boast two prime Conn Smythe candidates of their own in McDavid and Leon Draisaitl. Florida is just three periods away from a Stanley Cup win, while the Oilers will need at least nine, significantly hampering Edmonton’s chance of taking home playoff MVP. After all, a member of the losing team hasn’t won a Conn Smythe since Jean-Sebastien Giguere in 2003. But McDavid’s rivaling – and likely soon topping – of 40 playoff points could be enough to warrant the nod. That feat has only been managed by two other players – three times by Gretzky and once by Mario Lemieux. Crossing 40 points has resulted in a Conn Smythe win in three of those four cases, though Gretzky lost the 1993 trophy to Patrick Roy. If not McDavid to buck the trend, then Draisaitl is certainly a strong candidate – boasting 30 points in 22 playoff games and willing the Oilers through the first two rounds with unprecedented scoring.

The list of Conn Smythe candidates has come down to just a few, though who could take home the hardware seems up in the air after a shocking Game 4. And while the decision will, of course, lean on which team wins – it could also come down to deciding between history and precedent. So, with finalists in mind, who do you think will take home the Conn Smythe Trophy? Tell us in the poll below, and discuss in the comments.

Who Will Win The 2024 Conn Smythe Trophy?
Sergei Bobrovsky 49.45% (407 votes)
Aleksander Barkov 26.73% (220 votes)
Connor McDavid 23.21% (191 votes)
Leon Draisaitl 0.61% (5 votes)
Total Votes: 823

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Ducks’ Trevor Zegras Offers Lucrative Trade Value

at CDT | by 13 Comments

The 2024 summer is gearing up to be dramatic, with Vezina Trophy goaltenders and young top scorers headlining a very active trade market. The Anaheim Ducks may be positioning themselves as the team of the summer amidst it all, as star Ducks forward and former top-10 pick Trevor Zegras is once again facing trade rumors. Trade speculation is nothing new for the former USNTDP standout, who faced plenty of uncertainty entering the season – missing both training camp and preseason action while holding our for a new contract. He ultimately settled on a three-year, $17.2MM bridge contract – though Zegras would regardless end up missing most of the season with a broken ankle. He returned from an 11-week absence in March and ultimately totaled 31 games on the year, scoring just 15 points. But despite the down year, Zegras’ age, scoring upside, and cheap contract offer rare and incredibly lucrative value on the trade market.

It seems Zegras’ scoring upside has been shrouded behind a down year this season – but there’s no doubting his place among the best young scorers in the league. Zegras posted an impressive 23 goals and 61 points in 75 games as a rookie in 2021-22 – being named the runner-up to Moritz Seider’s 2022 Calder Trophy. To boot, Zegras proved consistent in his sophomore year, managing 65 points and again scoring 23 goals in 81 games. Combined with his modest scoring this year, Zegras has totaled 55 goals and 154 points across his first 211 games. That equates to a 0.72 points-per-game pace, ranking Zegras among the most potent young scorers in the game, and situating him ahead of players like Seth Jarvis, Lucas Raymond, and Cole Caufield.

And unlike many young players, Zegras offers the flexibility play both center and winger at an NHL level, with Anaheim mentioning adapting Zegras to center as a key priority in his early development and time in the AHL. He was frequently used down the middle through his first two years in the NHL – though he posted a dismal 40.6 faceoff percentage. The arrival of Leo Carlsson this season was enough to bump Zegras back to the wing, where he struggled to work off the boards in a Ducks system built more on physicality than finesse. His struggles at the faceoff dot make him a hard sale as a full-time center, though his flexibility makes him a match for even more teams.

Zegras’ reputation may be unruly, but he’s been in elite scoring talent since breaking out with the NTDP’s notorious 2019 lineup. With so much consistency between his first two seasons, it seems much more likely that his down year was more the result of a shaky start to the year, marred by prolonged contracting negotiations and injury, than it was an indication that he’s fallen off course. At a spry 23, Zegras is just kicking off his career, already carving out a consistent top-six role and strong scoring pace before many players earn a daily lineup role at all. His offensive upside has vindicated Zegras’ draft spot – as he sits fourth among the 2019 class in NHL scoring – but it also makes him substantially harder to price on the trade market. There simply aren’t previous trades situated around a player as high-scoring or young as Zegras.

It, in a way, harkens back to Larry Murphy’s move from the Los Angeles Kings to the Washington Capitals in 1983. While the swap differs in a  lot of ways – Murphy most notably being a high scoring defenseman, and a player significantly closer to the league’s greatest at the time of his move. But there are plenty of similarities as well. Murphy also carried top-10 draft pedigree, vindicated by star scoring, and was moved before his 24th birthday. In that case, the Kings received stout top-four defenseman Brian Engblom and Ken Houston as he neared retirement. Zegras’ trade rumors are occurring over four decades later – so there’s like not much to be gleaned from Murphy’s move – though precedent could suggest that the Ducks may need to settle for impactful depth in any move featuring such a young star.

The Ducks will find much more present, and realistic, guidance in the trades of Martin Necas and Nikolaj Ehlers, two other potent scorers on the trade market – though Necas, the younger of the two, is still three years Zegras’ senior. Speculation around what the pair of wingers could fetch has been all over, with Carolina rumored to be interested in top prospects, though even a swap of the pair has been mentioned as a possibility. With Zegras under contract for the next two seasons, and expiring as a restricted free agent, Anaheim has plenty of time to wait and see how the Necas and Ehlers situations pan out. Whatever deal they put together for their young star will undoubtedly be a blockbuster, bringing in the pieces to boost Anaheim into a new era – one led by Carlsson, adorned by new jerseys, and hopefully bound for the playoff consistency the Ducks were once known for.

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