Elsewhere around the NHL:

• While Capitals defenseman Jakob Chychrun made it known last month that he’s open to signing a contract extension with Washington, he told reporters including Sammi Silber of The Hockey News (Twitter link) that there haven’t been any extension discussions since before the break. The 26-year-old has been a great addition for Washington, already notching 14 goals and 21 assists through 50 games while logging 21 minutes a night.  He’s well on his way to earning a sizable raise on his current $4.6MM price tag but it doesn’t appear a new deal is coming in the near future.
• San Jose will get a key veteran center back for their upcoming seven-game road trip as Alexander Wennberg told reporters including Curtis Pashelka of The Mercury News (Twitter link) that he’ll be ready to return on Sunday. The 30-year-old has 23 points in 52 games for the Sharks this season and suffered an upper-body injury late last month.
• The Kraken have changed up their backup goalie. The team announced (Twitter link) that they’ve recalled Ales Stezka from AHL Coachella Valley and reassigned Victor Ostman to ECHL Kansas City, reversing the move made before the 4 Nations break.  Stezka has been Seattle’s backup as of late after Philipp Grubauer was assigned to the Firebirds but has yet to make his NHL debut.  He has a 2.99 GAA with a .902 SV% in 25 games this season.  Ostman, meanwhile, is in his first full professional season after signing with Seattle as a college free agent last spring.  He has played exclusively with the Mavericks, putting up a 2.44 GAA and a .905 SV% in 29 appearances.

Moser made an early exit from the Calgary game after sustaining a non-contact injury, falling to the ice and leading to a highlight-reel goal by Calgary center Nazem Kadri in a series of unfortunate events. The Lightning didn’t disclose any further information, but a timeline of that length likely suggests he underwent surgery, so some structural damage to the leg or knee likely needed fixing. It’s the first, albeit major, health-related blip in what has otherwise been a very solid season for Moser.

Acquired from Utah in the shocking draft-day Mikhail Sergachev swap, Moser has 10 points and a +13 rating through his first 27 games as a Bolt. He’s averaged 19:54 per game, down slightly from last year’s usage with the Coyotes, but has spent most of his time on the team’s top pairing with Victor Hedman while controlling 56.1% of expected goals, per MoneyPuck. Needless to say, Tampa has gotten more than what they paid for out of Moser after signing the restricted free agent to a two-year, $6.75MM bridge deal over the summer.

The 24-year-old Swiss native will now endure the longest injury-related absence of his four-year NHL career. Darren Raddysh has been Hedman’s other frequent even-strength partner this season and figures to factor into top-pairing minutes for the foreseeable future. After breaking out for 33 points in 82 games last season, Raddysh has nine in 21 this year while averaging 16:09 per game and serving as a semi-frequent healthy scratch, although he’s now played in 11 straight games dating back to Nov. 21.

It’s Carlile’s first recall of the season.  The 24-year-old made his NHL debut last year, getting into one game with Tampa Bay and with a strong season in the minors, he received a two-year, two-way deal back in June.  In 2024-25, Carlile has played in 21 games with the Crunch and has been a bit quieter than normal offensively, recording just one goal and two assists.  By comparison, he had 27 points in 61 games with Syracuse last season and 24 points in 69 outings in 2022-23.

As for Moser, he was injured on Thursday against Calgary.  The 24-year-old is in his first season with Tampa Bay after being acquired from Utah at the draft as part of the Mikhail Sergachev deal.  Moser has fit in relatively well with his new team thus far, recording 10 points in 27 games along with 39 blocked shots in just under 20 minutes a night of playing time, ranking him third among Lightning blueliners.  As a result of the placement, he will miss at least the next three games and is eligible to return on December 22nd against Florida.

Finley, meanwhile, did not take part in training camp with the Lightning due to an undisclosed injury that has kept him out until now.  The 22-year-old was a second-round pick back in 2020, going 57th overall.  Finley had a solid sophomore professional season in 2023-24 with the Crunch, notching 13 goals and 19 assists in 52 games.  He’s in the final year of his entry-level contract and will be a restricted free agent this summer.  Since Finley wasn’t on the NHL roster at all last season, there was no cap hit while he was on SOIR.

Updated 7/30/24, 1:07 p.m.

Contracts Settled

D Jake Christiansen (Blue Jackets) – one year, $775K (two-way agreement)
F Connor Dewar (Maple Leafs) – one year, $1.18MM
F Jack Drury (Hurricanes) – two years, $3.45MM
D Ty Emberson (Sharks) – one year, $950K
G Jet Greaves (Blue Jackets) – two years, $1.625MM (two-way in 2024-25, one-way in 2025-26)
F Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen (Sabres) – five years, $23.75MM
F Beck Malenstyn (Sabres) – two years, $2.7MM
D J.J. Moser (Lightning) – two years, $6.75MM
F Joe Veleno (Red Wings) – two years, $4.55MM
F Oliver Wahlstrom (Islanders) – one year, $1MM
F Kirill Marchenko (Blue Jackets) – three years, $11.55MM
F Martin Necas (Hurricanes) – two years, $13MM
D Ryan Lindgren (Rangers) – one year, $4.5MM

Contracts Awarded

D Spencer Stastney (Predators) – two years, $1.675MM (two-way in 2024-25, one-way in 2025-26)

Scheduled Hearings

none

A reminder of some of the arbitration rules for the upcoming potential hearings:

• A player and team can settle on a deal at any point before the hearing starts.
• Once the hearing has taken place, the arbitration decision must be issued by email within 48 hours.
• Arbitration awards can only be one or two years in length. (Players who are in their final year of restricted free agency are only entitled to a one-year agreement from an arbitrator.)
• The team decides on the awarded term as these were all player-elected filings.
• The team can walk away from the arbitration decision if a contract with an average annual value of more than $4.74MM is awarded.

Worth noting is that teams who have someone file for arbitration will receive a second buyout window three days after their final contract is settled or awarded.  The window lasts for 48 hours and the only eligible players to be bought out in this timeframe are those who have an AAV of $4MM or more and were on that team’s reserve list at the trade deadline back in March.

9:18 AM: After electing for salary arbitration on July 5th, defenseman J.J. Moser and the Tampa Bay Lightning have reportedly agreed on a new contract. Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reports the team has signed Moser to a two-year contract worth an AAV of $3.375MM.

According to the report from Friedman, Moser will make $2.7MM during the 2024-25 season and $4.05MM in 2025-26. It will be a significant raise over Moser’s previous contract where he averaged $887K during his entry-level contract.

It will be interesting to see how the Lightning deploy Moser after acquiring him as a part of the package for defenseman Mikhail Sergachev in a draft-day trade with the Utah Hockey Club. During a three-year stint with the Arizona Coyotes, Moser quickly became a part of the team’s top four after making his NHL debut in the 2021-22 NHL season.

Over 205 regular season games with the Coyotes, Moser scored 16 goals and 72 points while averaging over 20 minutes of ice time per night. Moser played in nearly all situations in Arizona and showed flashes of being an effective two-way defenseman but did have some shortcomings on the defensive side of the puck. According to HockeyReference, Moser produced an expected +/- of -35.6 throughout his tenure in the desert — coming out to an average of nearly -12 each season. Additionally, Moser averaged an on-ice save percentage in all situations of 89.5% over his first three seasons, but some of the blame could be shared with a subpar Arizona defensive core.

With Victor Hedman and Ryan McDonagh expected to receive a bulk of the minutes on the left side of Tampa Bay’s blue line crew, Moser should get bumped down to a bottom-pairing role with the Lightning. Although his salary for next year is right on par with a bottom-pairing defenseman, his 2025-26 salary will become a bit rich if Tampa Bay decides to keep him in a similar role.

F Beck Malenstyn (Buffalo Sabres)
G Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen (Buffalo Sabres)
F Martin Necas (Carolina Hurricanes)
F Jack Drury (Carolina Hurricanes)
D Jake Christiansen (Columbus Blue Jackets)
G Jet Greaves (Columbus Blue Jackets)
F Kirill Marchenko (Columbus Blue Jackets)
F Joe Veleno (Detroit Red Wings)
D Spencer Stastney (Nashville Predators)
F Oliver Wahlstrom (New York Islanders)
D Ryan Lindgren (New York Rangers)
D Ty Emberson (San Jose Sharks)
D J.J. Moser (Tampa Bay Lightning)
F Connor Dewar (Toronto Maple Leafs)

The first blockbuster of the draft has hit, as Tampa Bay parts with a top-line defender and moves out $8.5MM in cap space. That should make their pursuit of franchise centerman Steven Stamkos a bit more manageable. Stamkos was reportedly set for the open market on July 1st, with the Lightning holding just $5.335MM in cap space. That number is now up to $16.5MM – a massive difference – after the Lightning also moved Tanner Jeannot and his $2.665MM cap hit to the Los Angeles Kings.

And while the cap space is surely what Tampa was looking for, they’ll reel in a strong return for parting with Sergachev. That includes Moser, who’s filled a strong second-pairing role for the Arizona Coyotes since his second-round selection in 2021. Still just 24, Moser has already totaled 205 career games and 72 points – including 26 points in 80 games this year. He’s a swift, confident defender on and off the puck, showing a knack for controlling traffic along his own blue line.

Tampa also receives top prospect Conor Geekie, the 11th overall pick in the 2022 NHL Draft. He’s since played through his final two seasons in the WHL, recording 99 points in just 55 games split between the Wenatchee Wild and Swift Current Broncos this season. Not to be outdone, Geekie also added nine points in nine postseason games. He’s a big-frame forward, standing at 6-foot-4 and 197 pounds. He’s improved his ability to move that weight around substantially since his draft year looking much more fluid moving with the puck on his stick this season. Geekie signed his entry-level contract following the end of Swift Current’s year, setting him up for his first pro season in 2024-25.

And in return for their pretty penny, Utah receives a true top defenseman – finally ending a search that’s taken them through Jakob Chychrun, Shayne Gostisbehere, and Sean Durzi. None of the options could fill the role, though, leading Utah to pull in the understudy to Lightning star Victor Hedman. Sergachev has served in a vital role for the Lightning since a 2017 trade for forward Jonathan Drouin. He recorded 40 points in 79 games in his rookie season with Tampa Bay, quickly claiming a large share of ice time that he hasn’t relinquished since. Sergachev recorded at least 30 points in each of his next four seasons before posting a career-high 10 goals and 64 points in the 2022-23 season. It was the breakout that fans had been waiting for – though his encore this season was cut short by a pair of long-term leg injuries. He’ll now have to carry on his performance in a new jersey, joining the NHL’s newest franchise.

Anisimov was moved to the Columbus Blue Jackets after four seasons with the Rangers. He spent three more in Columbus, before spending four years in Chicago and two in Ottawa. All the while, Anisimov remained a fantastic depth scorer, recording four seasons of 20-or-more goals in his nine seasons outside of New York. His career totaled 771 games and 376 points before Anisimov slipped away from the NHL, moving to Russia’s KHL for the 2021-22 season and spending last year with the Lehigh Valley Phantoms of the AHL. The 35-year-old centerman managed 19 goals and 36 points in 55 AHL games last year, suggesting that he may have some more left in the tank. He’ll have a chance to prove that now back where his career started.

More notes from around the league:

• J.J. Moser is set to return to the Arizona Coyotes lineup on Tuesday. The young defender missed two games after suffering an upper-body injury on December 23rd. Moser is in his third NHL season and has 15 points and a +8 through 33 games on the year. It’s the first time in Moser’s young career that he’s had a positive +/-.
• Curtis Lazar returned to the New Jersey Devils’ practice on Tuesday, after missing the team’s last three games with a lower-body injury. Lazar has been designated as day-to-day and was a game-time decision for both Friday and Saturday. Lazar has been an important piece of the Devils lineup when he can go, netting four goals and 10 points through 30 games this season.