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Maple Leafs Still Pursuing Jani Hakanpää, Max Pacioretty

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Expect the Maple Leafs to turn their attention to finalizing contracts for unrestricted free agents Jani Hakanpää and Max Pacioretty after getting a deal done with restricted free agent winger Nicholas Robertson this morning, says Darren Dreger of TSN. With limited cap room, getting a Robertson contract finalized further before training camp was a priority for Treliving to avoid the threat of a late-summer offer sheet, Dreger added.

Hakanpää reportedly agreed to a two-year, $3MM deal with the Leafs when free agency opened on July 1, but the contract was never finalized. That’s because the 32-year-old is still dealing with the effects of a knee injury that ended his 2023-24 campaign shortly after the trade deadline.

A dispute between Hakanpää and the Leafs’ medical staff about whether he can play through the injury, which has left his knee “basically bone on bone,” led Chris Johnston of TSN and The Athletic to say last month that Toronto was unlikely to end up registering the contract. It appears they’re still holding out hope, though, and are trying to get the stay-at-home defender in a Maple Leafs sweater before training camp opens next Wednesday.

After signing Robertson, though, they don’t have the capacity to stomach Hakanpää’s $1.5MM cap hit as reported. They could become cap-compliant by shedding Conor Timmins’ $1.1MM cap hit, either by trade, waivers or burying him in the minors. Doing so would leave the Leafs with just $333 in cap space with an open roster spot, per PuckPedia. They currently have $400,333 in projected space with Robertson and Timmins on the NHL roster.

Hakanpää has come into his own as a valuable shutdown presence in Dallas, posting 40 points and a +29 rating in 226 appearances for the Stars over the past three seasons while averaging 17:47 per game. If signed, the right-shot defenseman projects to slot into a bottom-four role, potentially bumping Jake McCabe back to his natural left side and Simon Benoit to the press box.

They’d still need to make another move in order to add Pacioretty. The Maple Leafs were linked to the 35-year-old winger late last month, and he remains on the market in search of a guaranteed contract rather than a professional tryout.

Treliving appears willing to make that guaranteed deal work. It’ll likely end up as a league-minimum $775K cap hit before performance bonuses – which he’s eligible for with a 35+ contract. Those bonuses could result in cap pain for the Leafs down the line, but it would require minimal work to make him fit on the roster now. They could waive, trade, or otherwise demote any roster player aside from Joseph Woll and have a pathway to cap compliance with both Hakanpää and Pacioretty, assuming Timmins is off the roster as stipulated earlier.

Coming off back-to-back Achilles injuries, Pacioretty posted four goals, 19 assists and 23 points in 47 games for the Capitals last season with a -14 rating. He’s due for significant positive regression in the goal-scoring department after shooting at an abysmal 4.2%, nearly seven points south of his 11.1% career average.

Maple Leafs Re-Sign Nicholas Robertson

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The Maple Leafs have re-signed restricted free agent winger Nicholas Robertson to a one-year deal worth $875K, per a team announcement.

Robertson, who turns 23 tomorrow, has been the subject of trade rumors ever since a report from Chris Johnston of TSN and The Athletic on the eve of free agency indicated he’d requested out of Toronto and had “no plans to re-sign with the Leafs this summer.” His name was also briefly mentioned in trade talks last season after a February report that indicated the Leafs were willing to listen to offers for the winger, but he wasn’t moved by the deadline.

As late as two weeks ago, Johnston said Robertson was still hoping to be moved. But last week, Luke Fox of Sportsnet said he wasn’t expecting Robertson to be traded before camp, putting a little bit of cold water on public trade speculation.

There’s still time for that suspicion to be wrong before training camps kick off around the league next week. It’s likely now easier than ever for Maple Leafs general manager Brad Treliving to get a Robertson trade across the finish line, with interested teams now having certainty of his cap hit for 2024-25.

But Robertson could also very well still be a Maple Leaf when opening night rosters are due. Treliving has maintained a positive relationship with Robertson by keeping in contact with him while exploring potential moves this summer, Darren Dreger of TSN reports, adding that new bench boss Craig Berube will help give the young winger a fresh start.

If he does end up sticking around, Robertson has a legitimate chance at a breakout season. While he was no longer technically a rookie, 2023-24 was his first true full NHL campaign. The 2019 second-round pick answered the bell with 14 goals and 13 assists for 27 points in 56 games while averaging just 11:23 per game with minimal power play time.

At 5v5, those numbers made Robertson one of the league’s most efficient scorers last season. His 1.34 goals per 60 minutes ranked 17th in the league, putting him on par with stars like Boston’s David Pastrňák and Winnipeg’s Kyle Connor.

There will likely be some regression from last year’s 14.6 shooting percentage in 2024-25, but an increase in ice time and special teams usage under Berube should help negate a drop in point-per-game production. He was on pace for 40 points had he played all 82 games last season, a figure he could very well build upon if he begins to see spot duty in the top six. After Tyler Bertuzzi left for the Blackhawks in free agency and with Matthew Knies expected to get an early crack at first-line duties alongside Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner, there’s a second-line spot up for grabs with William Nylander and John Tavares that could be Robertson’s for the taking.

A one-year pact makes Robertson an RFA again next summer, still without arbitration rights. The Maple Leafs now have just over $400K in projected cap space with one open roster spot, per PuckPedia.

Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet was first to report the Leafs were expected to announce a deal for Robertson today.

Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.

Poll: Which Non-Playoff Team From The East Will Return In 2024-25?

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The 2024 Stanley Cup playoff picture in the Eastern Conference was similar to 2023 aside from a few changes to the seeding of the eight teams. The only team switch was the Washington Capitals and New Jersey Devils with the former making it in as the final wild-card team in the Conference on the last day of the regular season. The 2024-25 season will bring similar hypotheticals as any new season in which teams will ultimately find themselves in the group of 16.

New Jersey may be the early favorite to return to the playoffs after an impressive summer. The team added a salary-retained Jacob Markstrom in an early-summer swap with the Calgary Flames while handing out big-ticket contracts to Brett Pesce and Brenden Dillon. That trio should help the team dramatically improve upon their 3.43 GA/G (28th) from last season with the offense still as staunch as ever. The only concern that may carry over from last season is the organization’s recurring injury concerns. Only four players are returning from last year that played in 75+ games and New Jersey will need to keep a much healthier lineup if they want another shot at the Stanley Cup.

There has been an informal race throughout the last several years as to which of the Buffalo Sabres, Detroit Red Wings, or Ottawa Senators will return to the playoffs the quickest in the Atlantic Division. Detroit came close last year by tying in points with the Capitals on the final day of the regular season but ultimately losing on the tiebreaker of ’Regulation Wins’. The Sabres made a point to strengthen their bottom six this summer while the Red Wings largely added around the edges. Ottawa made the biggest splash by bringing in goaltender Linus Ullmark in a trade with the Boston Bruins and should have center Joshua Norris around for much of the season.

The Pittsburgh Penguins will be another team to look out for as they’ve missed each of the last two postseasons by a combined four points. None of the other teams in the Eastern Conference have the benefit of deploying Sidney Crosby making Pittsburgh an immediate threat to qualify for the postseason. The Metropolitan Division is arguably the toughest in the NHL but the Penguins could capitalize should other divisional opponents get off to slow starts.

Other teams in the Eastern Conference could make a surprise run to the postseason but the abovementioned group serves as the favorite candidates at this point. Which one of these teams do you think has the best chance of returning in 2025?

Mobile users, click here to vote

Sidney Crosby “Optimistic” Extension Will Be Done Before Season

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Pittsburgh Penguins captain Sidney Crosby told media members in Las Vegas that he is “pretty optimistic” a contract extension will be in place before the start of the regular season as originally reported by Joshua Clipperton of the Canadian Press. Crosby was in town for the NHL/NHLPA Media Tour after it had returned from Europe a few weeks ago.

The quote from Crosby is certainly a different tune on the extension negotiations from only a few days ago when Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reported that Crosby was still uncertain about signing an extension altogether. Friedman raised the concern in his original report that Crosby’s competitive nature may be giving him pause about continuing the final years of his Hall-of-Fame career on a retooling Pittsburgh roster. The Penguins organization is rumored to have multiple offers on the table to retain their captain.

It would still not be a major shock to see Crosby enter the 2024-25 regular season without an extension. Crosby has been an MVP-level talent well into his mid-to-late 30s but the Penguins have failed to put a playoff-caliber team around him. Pittsburgh missed out on the Stanley Cup playoffs for the first time since Crosby’s rookie season in 2022-23 and again failed last year. Crosby himself has nearly willed the Penguins into the postseason in those two years but the team’s lack of aggression in improving their team may have him considering other options.

On the flipside of the coin; Crosby may have every intention of finishing his career with the only organization he’s ever known despite the team’s on-ice success over the last several years. He has little left to accomplish in his career with three Stanley Cups, two Art Ross Trophies, three Ted Lindsay Awards, two Maurice Richard Trophies, two Conn Smythe Trophies, two Hart Memorial Trophies, and one Mark Messier Leadership Award. He currently sits 10th all-time in scoring in the NHL and could reach second all-time if he continues his torrid scoring pace.

Pittsburgh finished one point back of a playoff spot in the 2022-23 campaign and three points last year which shows one to three more wins throughout the regular season could give Crosby another shot at a Stanley Cup. He has always been known as one of the fiercest competitors in the game and Crosby’s desire to win will ultimately play a large factor on his decision-making over the next few weeks.

Maple Leafs, Mitch Marner Taking Extension Talks Slowly

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Entering a contract year, there still doesn’t appear to be a ton of urgency between the Maple Leafs and Mitch Marner to get an extension done. Darren Dreger of TSN said on TSN Toronto 1050’s “First Up” today that the relationship between Marner and the Leafs is “in a good place,” but no extension news is imminent with training camp beginning next week:

I don’t want to misconstrue that with the belief that an extension is looming, that it’s going to happen quickly. Obviously, it’s going to be a top-of-mind, big story from the beginning of training camp and probably until the day that an extension with committed and announced, but I don’t have the sense that that’s going to happen any time soon. And I think both sides are okay with that. Marner knows that this is yet another big year for that young leadership group, and he’s a big part of that. So, he’s focused on a good start for himself, for his team. I don’t get the sense that there’s contract pressure on Marner. He’s happy for it to be quiet. There’s good dialogue between Darren Ferris and Brad Treliving; they’ve got a good relationship, but they’re not in heavy negotiations. Again, both sides are okay with that. There doesn’t appear to be a rush, at this stage.

Trade rumors began dogging Marner this offseason almost immediately after Bruins winger David Pastrňák ended Toronto’s season in overtime of Game 7 of the First Round. The Predators were mentioned early on as a team that would be interested if Marner decided to waive his no-movement clause, a bit of news that foreshadowed their aggressiveness on the free-agent market.

But there hasn’t been much substantive reporting on Marner’s situation for weeks, even dating back to the beginning of free agency. Thus far, there’s still been no indication that he’s considering waiving his NMC to facilitate a trade, and at least initial extension talks have begun.

Marner, 27, is entering the final season of the bonus-laden six-year, $65.41MM deal he inked as an RFA late in the summer of 2019. Since inking the contract, Marner has averaged over 20 minutes per game in every season, finishing top-10 in Selke Trophy voting twice, and averaged 1.24 points per game – eighth in the NHL during that time. A top-five winger in the league, he’s a playmaking superstar on a team full of high-powered talent.

But whether Toronto, now with Treliving entering his second season as GM and Craig Berube entering his first as head coach, will be willing to give Marner enough of a raise on his current $10.9MM cap hit to make a long-term agreement remains to be seen. The team already has over $61.7MM in cap hit commitments for 2025-26 with nine open roster spots, and an eight-year extension for Marner at this stage would likely finish in the low $11MM range, Evolving Hockey projects.

Unfortunately for the Leafs, Leon Draisaitl’s recent eight-year, $14MM AAV extension likely bumped that number up. Marner’s 415 points over the past five years pale in comparison to Drasaitl’s 538, especially considering a similar amount of games played, but Marner is a far superior defensive talent with penalty-killing upside. He very likely won’t match that price tag, even if he does hit the open market next summer, but it could be enough to push his next deal into the $12MM range per season.

Predators Re-Sign Marc Del Gaizo To Two-Way Deal

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The Predators have re-signed defenseman Marc Del Gaizo to a two-way contract, per a team announcement. The restricted free agent will earn a $775K salary if on the NHL roster next season and $125K in the AHL, Alex Daugherty of The Tennessean reports.

Del Gaizo, 25 next month, was a fourth-round pick of the Preds in 2019. He made his NHL debut last season, recording three assists and a +2 rating while averaging 16:28 across nine appearances in a pair of call-ups in November and March.

The New Jersey native is coming off a career-best season in the minors with the AHL’s Milwaukee Admirals. On assignment to the Ads, he set new career highs in goals (8), points (34), and rating (+18) in 60 appearances, leading or tying for the team lead in every offensive category. An undersized (5’11″/187 lbs) left-shot defender, Del Gaizo ended his 2023-24 campaign with seven points and a +6 rating in 15 playoff games for Milwaukee.

Del Gaizo was an RFA this summer after completing his entry-level contract. After the Preds signed Juuso Pärssinen this morning, he was one of two remaining RFAs Nashville had. Now, just forward Philip Tomasino remains without a deal.

Entering his fourth professional season, Del Gaizo is no longer waiver-exempt. On the cusp of challenging for more NHL minutes, there’s a non-zero chance he gets claimed if Nashville attempts to sneak him through and return him to Milwaukee to start the season. Spencer Stastney played more last season and has the inside track to lock down an extra defense spot on the Preds’ opening night roster, supplementing their six D-men signed to one-way deals, but he is still waiver-exempt. That could prove advantageous to Del Gaizo’s chances of starting the season in Tennessee instead of Wisconsin.

Latest On Brock Boeser

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All signs point to Canucks sniper Brock Boeser being ready for the season after he told reporters today he’s off blood thinners and has been cleared for contact (via Noah Strang of Daily Hive Vancouver). He missed the final game of Vancouver’s season, a Game 7 loss to the Oilers in the Second Round after scans showed clotting that stemmed from a blocked shot earlier in the series.

However, Boeser, 27, isn’t entirely out of the woods yet. He made it clear the situation will be one to “monitor throughout this season,” Strang said. He also added that he’ll need to wear compression gear on flights to prevent additional clotting issues.

After a breakout 40-goal, 73-point regular season, the clotting issue didn’t impact Boeser’s usual offseason training routine too much. During Vancouver’s end-of-season media availability in May, the winger said that he anticipated being ready for training camp in the fall. He didn’t disclose today if his contact clearance was a recent development or if it came earlier in the offseason.

And, as expected, Boeser also said he hasn’t begun negotiations on a contract extension and will instead let those play out after the season starts (per Strang). That’s what Rick Dhaliwal and Thomas Drance of The Athletic indicated would happen last month, with a lack of talks coming across the wire thus far in the offseason. Boeser is entering the final season of a three-year, $19.95MM deal with a $6.65MM AAV, one he’ll eclipse by a significant amount if he can repeat last season’s showing.

It’s unlikely that will be the case, though. Boeser could still earn a raise, but expecting him to hit the 40-goal mark again seems unrealistic. The Minnesota native shot 19.6% last season – nearly six points above his career average. With an expected regression to the 13-14% range, the 30-goal plateau is still reachable.

He still projects to play a starring role on a new-look Canucks offense that now features Jake DeBrusk, Danton Heinen, and Daniel Sprong, replacing some outgoing names like Sam Lafferty, Elias Lindholm, and Ilya Mikheyev. He’s slated to start the season as Vancouver’s top right wing in first-line minutes alongside J.T. Miller.

Dreger: Bruins, Jeremy Swayman Closer To Deal Than Previously Reported

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After a long summer of contract negotiations between the Bruins and restricted free agent netminder Jeremy Swayman, cautious optimism is slowly building about the two sides coming to an agreement. Speaking on TSN 1050 Toronto’s “First Up” segment today, TSN’s Darren Dreger didn’t go so far as to say a deal before training camp is imminent but did report that “negotiations are probably closer than what we’re reading about” (stick taps to The Fourth Period).

As referenced by Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman on last week’s “32 Thoughts” podcast and first reported by Ryan Whitney of the “Spittin’ Chiclets” podcast, the Bruins hadn’t reportedly moved much from an initial four-year, $24.8MM ($6.2MM AAV) offer they used to open talks at the beginning of the offseason. Swayman’s camp, meanwhile, has been looking for a longer-term pact in the $8.5MM AAV range, Frank Seravalli of Daily Faceoff said last month.

Regardless of how highly the Bruins value the 25-year-old Swayman, whose .918 SV% ranks third in the league over the past two seasons among goalies with over 50 appearances, they can’t commit to his ask without making a corresponding transaction. They have one open roster spot left for the goalie, but cap space would become an issue with $8.64MM in projected room, per PuckPedia.

While Dreger thinks negotiations are closer than that multi-year, multi-million-dollar gap, he wasn’t clear about which side was more willing to deviate from their ask. Last month, Kevin Paul Dupont of the Boston Globe opined a shorter-term deal with an AAV more similar to the Predators’ Juuse Saros, who inked an eight-year extension with a $7.78MM cap hit earlier this summer, could end up being what gets Swayman between the pipes before opening night.

And, while all indications still point to an agreement coming before then, it’s significantly less certain that Swayman will be in attendance when training camp opens next week. The netminder said on a podcast last month that he doesn’t want to drag down other goalies’ earning potential in the future by taking a lesser deal that could hurt their comparables.

With tandem partner Linus Ullmark out the door to the Senators, Swayman will be an undisputed No. 1 netminder for the first time this season – very clearly the root of Boston’s hesitancy to shell out superstar-level cash, even if his play has warranted it in lesser usage. He did make the slight majority of starts for the Bruins last season with 43, posting a 25-10-8 record and .916 SV% en route to finishing seventh in Vezina Trophy voting.

Latest On Alexei Kolosov

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Flyers prospect Alexei Kolosov continues to be shrouded in uncertainty about whether he’ll report to the club for training camp next week, and speculation persists about where he’ll play this season.

Philly’s front office reportedly met with Kolosov’s camp, now led by agent Dan Milstein, late last month. Since then, it’s been reported that the Flyers still don’t have a firm answer on whether Kolosov will report to their AHL affiliate, the Lehigh Valley Phantoms, but they’re operating under the assumption that he won’t.

If he doesn’t report and instead signs a contract with Dinamo Minsk of the Kontinental Hockey League for 2024-25, Daily Faceoff’s Anthony Di Marco reports the final two years of his entry-level contract will likely be tolled to the 2025-26 and 2026-27 campaigns. Notably, the situation very nearly mirrors the one the Flyers found themselves in when netminder Ivan Fedotov, who was signed to a valid NHL deal for the 2022-23 season, was prevented from reporting due to required military service in his native Russia and remained under contract with KHL club CSKA Moscow.

Fedotov’s deal instead went into effect for 2023-24. Although he signed an agreement last year with CSKA in violation of his NHL contract (which resulted in hefty sanctions to both parties from the IIHF), he managed to get out of his contract with CSKA and make his NHL debut for the Flyers in the closing days of the season.

Kolosov, a Minsk native, has made it clear he wants the Flyers to loan him back to Dinamo this season. The Flyers are still intent on having him log starts for Lehigh Valley, though, and that disconnect is what’s fueling their current dispute.

If Kolosov signs a contract with Dinamo for 2024-25 (or longer), violating his contract with Philadelphia, it won’t result in the same sanctions that Fedotov’s deal spurred. That’s because the KHL’s directors voted in July to make the league independent from the IIHF and the Russian Ice Hockey Federation, meaning they no longer need either governing body’s permission to sign players from foreign leagues.

Kolosov, still just 22, was a third-round pick of the Flyers in 2021. While on the small end at 6’0″ and 185 lbs, that hasn’t stopped him from growing into his own as a starter in one of the world’s top professional leagues at a young age.

Before coming to Philadelphia to end last season, Kolosov recorded career-highs in appearances (47), GAA (2.39), shutouts (4), and wins (22) in the KHL regular season for Dinamo. He put a bow on the campaign with a spectacular .925 SV% in six postseason games as Minsk fell to Dynamo Moscow. However, he struggled in brief action after coming over to Lehigh Valley, limited to a .885 SV% and 3.03 GAA in a win and a loss in two appearances.

Predators Re-Sign Juuso Pärssinen To One-Way Deal

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The Predators are close to re-signing RFA center Juuso Pärssinen to a one-year, one-way deal, according to a team release. Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet was first to report the contract. The left-shot forward will earn the league minimum salary of $775K.

Pärssinen, 23, made his NHL debut with Nashville in 2022-23 – certainly coming ahead of schedule for the 2019 seventh-round pick. He stayed on the roster for the entirety of the season after his initial November recall, making 45 appearances before an upper-body injury ended his season in late February. He posted six goals and 19 assists for 25 points, finishing eighth on the team in points per game, and averaged 14:20 per night while winning 50.2% of his faceoffs and logging 76 hits with middling possession numbers.

Last season, Pärssinen made the team out of camp but couldn’t carry over his overall level of play into his sophomore campaign. He posted 12 points in 44 games with similarly below-average possession numbers and a much worse showing in the faceoff dot (37.5 FOW%) before being assigned to the minors in late January.

Pärssinen remained there for the rest of the regular season, making 36 appearances for the AHL’s Milwaukee Admirals with seven goals, 18 assists, 25 points, and a +12 rating. He was added back to the Preds’ playoff roster, and he did draw into the lineup for their season-ending 1-0 loss in Game 6 of the First Round against the Canucks.

An RFA at season’s end following the conclusion of his entry-level contract, Pärssinen is at a transitional spot in his development, making it difficult to work out a deal. His performance over the last few seasons in the minors has warranted his NHL looks.

The 6’3″ pivot’s production and physicality in a bottom-nine role certainly make it seem like there should be a consistent role for him down the line. Still, there are enough holes in his all-around game that warranted his demotion. As such, Nashville was likely angling for a two-way deal in negotiations here, likely with a slightly higher NHL salary should he spend time on the major league roster. Instead, Pärssinen lands a one-way pact that’s much safer financially.

It’s also indicative that he’ll make the Preds’ opening night roster for the second year in a row. With Pärssinen under contract, the Preds now have the minimum 12 forwards on their projected 2024-25 roster, per PuckPedia, and there are few (if any) forwards in the organization on entry-level or two-way contracts with a legitimate shot at starting the year in the NHL. They now have $1.5MM in projected cap space with two open roster spots and another RFA forward, Philip Tomasino, still left to sign.

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