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Oilers Decline To Match Offer Sheets For Philip Broberg, Dylan Holloway

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The Oilers have let Philip Broberg and Dylan Holloway head to the Blues today by declining to match the offer sheets they signed last week, the team announced.

As such, Broberg and Holloway will enter into valid two-year contracts with the Blues. Broberg’s deal has a total value of $9.16MM and a $4.58MM cap hit, while Holloway’s has a total value of $4.58MM and a $2.29MM cap hit. Upon expiry in 2026, each will become restricted free agents with arbitration rights.

Edmonton will receive the Blues’ 2025 second and third-round picks as compensation for the Broberg and Holloway offers. St. Louis had previously traded away next year’s second-rounder but re-acquired it from the Penguins minutes before announcing the offer sheets last week.

Broberg, 23, was the eighth overall pick in the 2019 draft after dominating that year’s U18 World Championship, being named the tournament’s best defenseman, an All-Star, and a top-three player on the team while winning a gold medal with Sweden. Unfortunately, he hasn’t yet been able to convert that draft pedigree into a full-time NHL role. He’s bounced between the Oilers and their AHL affiliate, the Bakersfield Condors, limiting Edmonton’s willingness to give him a deal with a seven-figure AAV, let alone one in the $4MM range.

2023-24 marked a regression for Broberg, who got just 12 regular-season appearances after making a career-high 46 the season before. The left-shot averaged 11:37 per game, his shortest leash since making his NHL debut three years ago, and had two assists with a -3 rating. However, he was able to unlock a new gear in the minors. He’d been a two-way force with the Condors since arriving in North America in 2021 but took things to a new level last season with five goals, 33 assists, 38 points, and a +11 rating in 49 games. His 0.78 points per game were fourth in the league among defenders with at least 15 games played.

Broberg entered restricted free agency for the first time on a bit of a high note after re-entering the Oilers lineup during the tail end of their run to the Stanley Cup Final. He got into 10 games in May and June, getting top-four spot duty alongside Darnell Nurse and averaging 15:48 per game. He seemed to respond well, posting three points and a +8 rating, but his shot attempt metrics were quite poor, and his rating has more to do with an artificially high .969 SV% from Oilers netminder Stuart Skinner while Broberg was on the ice. The eye test indicated he was playing with more confidence, though, despite being bumped to his weak side playing with Nurse.

Holloway is a similar story. The 6’1″ forward, who turns 23 next month, was the No. 14 overall pick a year after Broberg and, had he been eight days older, would have been eligible for the 2022 draft instead. In his post-draft season, Holloway enjoyed a standout sophomore campaign at the University of Wisconsin, where he had 35 points in just 23 games and was named to the Big 10 conference’s First All-Star Team and was a finalist for the Hobey Baker Award for the top collegiate player. However, like his Swedish counterpart, Holloway has failed to avoid AHL assignments through each of his three professional seasons thus far.

However, Holloway has gotten more runway at the NHL level, making 89 appearances combined over the past two campaigns. He’s likely a safer bet to be an impact piece for St. Louis this season despite his contract being worth half as much as Broberg’s. With Edmonton’s world-beating forward depth, there have been limited opportunities for Holloway to land a spot higher up in the lineup, limiting his usage to 10:21 per game. That’s resulted in a relatively meager career offensive output of nine goals and 18 points, 0.20 per game.

Like Broberg, Holloway’s minor-league showings have been strong, most recently scoring 10 goals and six assists in 18 games with the Condors last season. But with the pending move to the Blues, both players’ days of seeing AHL ice are over. The Blues’ entire left defense depth chart becomes a tossup with Broberg, Pierre-Olivier Joseph, Scott Perunovich and veterans Nick Leddy and Ryan Suter, neither of whom have any set roles entering the season. There’s also the matter of Torey Krug, who could miss the entire 2024-25 season if he undergoes surgery to correct pre-arthritic conditions in his left ankle. If he’s out, there’s a chance for Broberg to earn a top-four job come opening night with a strong training camp.

Likewise, the Blues’ below-average forward depth gives Holloway a fighting chance at claiming a top-nine role when the Blues kick off the NHL’s Opening Night festivities against the Kraken on Oct. 8. There are options galore for the Blues to utilize Holloway, who can play both left-wing and center, in a wide-open competition with depth players like Mathieu Joseph, Kasperi Kapanen and Alexandre Texier.

It’s all part of a clear directive from St. Louis general manager Doug Armstrong to get younger and faster this summer, picking up more cost-effective depth pieces like Joseph and Texier to help boost a team with a roster now barely recognizable from its 2019 Stanley Cup win.

The Blues will be down to just $470K in projected cap space after taking on the contracts, but that’s assuming a roster size of two players over the 23-man limit. If they sent a pair of league-minimum contracts down to the minors, they’ll begin the season with just over $2MM in space.

After letting both players walk, the Oilers’ pathway to cap compliance is now clear. It’ll be a tight fit, but they have a few options to submit a cap-compliant opening night roster with at least one healthy extra, as outlined by PuckPedia. On the ice, they went out and acquired cheaper replacements for Broberg and Holloway on the trade market by picking up Ty Emberson from the Sharks and Vasily Podkolzin from the Canucks, but said goodbye to top-four fixture Cody Ceci and his $3.25MM cap hit in the process.

Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet was first to report that the Oilers would not be matching the offer sheets.

Images courtesy of USA Today Sports.

Canadiens Acquire Patrik Laine

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The Canadiens announced the acquisition of scoring winger Patrik Laine and a 2026 second-round pick from the Blue Jackets in exchange for defenseman Jordan Harris. No salary is retained in the swap.

Montreal has been on the lookout for top-six scoring help for quite some time. They’ve slowly added to their rebuilding group over the past few summers, taking on younger projects via trade like Kirby Dach and Alex Newhook. This is the biggest swing that general manager Kent Hughes has taken, though, picking up a more established yet expensive sniper.

They’re taking on an extremely high-ceiling talent in Laine and buying low while doing it, taking on a second-round pick for their troubles and only parting with Harris, an intriguing defender that was buried among their litany of other blue-line prospects. Laine’s lack of availability the past few seasons tanked his trade value, with various injuries and a lengthy stint in the NHL/NHLPA Player Assistance Program capping his 2023-24 campaign at just 18 appearances. He hasn’t played more than 60 games in a season since before the COVID-19 pandemic.

But when he’s on, he’s on. Even while battling through both upper and lower body injuries, Laine was close to a point-per-game player over his first two full seasons in Columbus. His best offensive season came in a Blue Jackets uniform in 2021-22, when he notched 26 goals and 56 points in 56 games. That prompted then-Blue Jackets GM Jarmo Kekäläinen to award Laine a four-year, $34.8MM deal, the same one that his successor, Don Waddell, has now had to surrender a draft pick to shed.

In the first year of the deal, Laine largely kept up the pace, churning out 22 goals and 52 points in 55 games even while shooting 12%, a conservative figure compared to his 14.7% career average. But last season, Laine was injured from the start and clashed with new head coach Pascal Vincent, who deployed him for a career-low 15:13 per game. As such, he was limited to six goals and nine points before his campaign ended in December.

It’s an expensive gamble for Montreal, who’s on the hook for an $8.7MM cap hit through 2025-26. But after taking months away to mentally reset and rehab his various injuries, Laine seems primed to return to form – if he can avoid re-injury. The 2016 second-overall pick hit 30-plus goals in the first three seasons of his NHL career with the Jets, and he had 28 goals in 68 games in 2019-20 before the pandemic ended the regular season. It was the shortened 2020-21 campaign, during which Laine was dealt to Columbus following a trade request, that first showed a chink in the armor of his goal-scoring ability. He was limited to just 12 goals and 24 points in 46 games on the year, managing just 82 shots on goal.

But he was on pace for well over 30 goals in each of the following two seasons with the Jackets, and that’s the player Montreal hopes can revitalize an offense that’s placed bottom-10 in the league for three years in a row. He, along with Cole Caufield and 2022 first-overall pick Juraj Slafkovsky, give the Habs three top-six wingers who can all likely be penciled in for more than 60 points next year. Slafkovsky, entering his third NHL season, broke out for 20 goals and 50 points with Montreal last year after being moved to top-line usage alongside Caufield and captain Nick Suzuki.

Laine likely won’t bump Caufield out of first-line minutes, but the right-winger will be tasked with anchoring their second line, potentially alongside the aforementioned Dach and Newhook. The 26-year-old would be the oldest member of that trio, a reversal from his time in Columbus, which was spent mostly on a line anchored by veteran Boone Jenner.

Salary-wise, PuckPedia notes that the Habs are now over the cap by a projected $1.1MM with a 23-man roster, including LTIR-bound netminder Carey Price. Montreal will likely submit a bare-bones season-opening roster with a couple of waiver-exempt players papered down to the AHL to remain cap-compliant before placing Price and his $10.5MM cap hit on LTIR after the season starts, opening up a large chunk of in-season maneuverability.

As for the Blue Jackets’ end of things, they free up a decent amount of spending money for the next two seasons and recoup an NHL-caliber defender. Harris, 24, was a third-round pick by the Canadiens in 2018 and has since developed into a serviceable third-pairing option. His possession quality numbers have been poor, as to be expected for a young player on a basement team, but his shot attempt share at even strength has been above team average over the last two years. He’s posted eight goals, 24 assists and 32 points in 131 games, including 14 points in 56 games last year.

Harris gives the Blue Jackets another option to compete for left-shot third-pairing duties out of the gate behind Zach Werenski and Ivan Provorov. He’ll need to ward off challenges from UFA signing Jack Johnson and two-time AHL All-Star Jake Christiansen for the job, though. Even if he’s not in the opening night lineup, it’s hard to envision him starting any lower than No. 7 on the depth chart. He’s no longer waiver-exempt and carries a $1.4MM cap hit, more than the maximum that’s buriable in the minors.

Columbus can start contract discussions with Harris whenever they wish, as he’s already extension-eligible. If he reaches restricted free agency next summer, he’ll be eligible to file for arbitration.

The Blue Jackets now have north of $18MM in cap space after the swap, PuckPedia projects. That’s enough to add whoever they want at the trade deadline if their young core breaks out this season, but it’s also more than enough flexibility to take on money to relieve contenders if they’re still in seller mode by the trade deadline.

Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet was first to report that Laine had been traded to Montreal. Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.

Valtteri Filppula Officially Signs With Finland’s Jokerit

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Helsinki Jokerit of Finland’s second-tier league, Mestis, has officially announced the signing of NHL veteran Valtteri Filppula to a one-year contract. Sami Hoffrén and Marko Lempinen of Helsingen Sanomat reported last week that the sides were discussing a potential reunion.

Filppula, entering his age-40 season, had spent the last three seasons with Switzerland’s Genève-Servette HC after his NHL career drew to a close in 2021. While he was always one of the league’s more defensively responsible centers in his prime, his offensive game came back alive in Geneva, particularly in 2022-23. That year, he finished second on the team in scoring with 17 goals, 34 assists and 51 points in 46 games before leading the National League in playoff assists with 12 in 18 games, helping Genève-Servette to its first championship since being promoted from Nationalliga B in 2002. All in all, he totaled 131 points in 145 regular-season games for the Swiss club.

While Filppula’s numbers trailed off in 2023-24, limited to 33 points in 51 games, he’s still capable of shouldering professional minutes in Europe, especially against significantly easier competition in Mestis. He brings a lot of nostalgia to Jokerit, with whom he had 21 goals, 42 assists, and 63 points in 120 games in the top-level Liiga, where he played as a teenager and briefly during the 2012-13 NHL lockout. After being selected by the Red Wings in the third round of the 2002 draft, Filppula departed Jokerit for Detroit in 2005.

Across two stints in Hockeytown, Filppula amassed 112 goals, 175 assists and 287 points in 591 games while averaging over 16 minutes per night. He was a key depth piece on the Wings’ 2008 championship team, earning some outside Selke Trophy consideration that year. Filppula also logged action with the Flyers, Islanders, and Lightning to bring the total number of NHL games he played to 1,056 regular-season contests across 16 seasons.

In the release, neither Filppula nor the team hinted at any intentions of retirement next summer. But if he ends his playing days, he’ll remain with Jokerit off the ice. As part of today’s news, he’s become a part-owner and will assume a front-office role when he does opt to hang up his skates.

Oilers Trade Cody Ceci, Pick for Ty Emberson

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The Edmonton Oilers have traded defenseman Cody Ceci and a 2025 third-round pick to the San Jose Sharks in exchange for defenseman Ty Emberson. The deal was initially reported by Sportsnet’s Mark Spector, who adds that no salary cap was retained. Spector mentions that moving Ceci’s $3.25MM cap hit could give Edmonton enough space to retain defenseman Philip Broberg while forward Dylan Holloway could be headed to the St. Louis Blues. Both players recently signed two-year offer sheets with the Blues  – Broberg’s totaling $9.16MM in salary and Holloway’s totaling $4.58MM.

The two restricted free agents are in similar spots in their careers – yet to vindicate their first-round precedent, though still carving out routine roles in Edmonton’s lineup. They were utilized similarly, averaging roughly 11:30 in ice time this season, though Holloway played 38 games to Broberg’s 12. Retaining both players would cost the Oilers $6.87MM in cap hit – a tough bill to pay for an Oilers team that was already $8.225MM over the cap ceiling. It seems the team is opting to hold onto the defenseman, though it will cost them near-800-game veteran Cody Ceci.

Despite routinely receiving criticism, Ceci was an anchor of Edmonton’s top-four last season, averaging 20 minutes of total ice time and more penalty-kill time than any other Oiler. He ended the year with five goals and 25 points in 79 games this season, adding five points in 24 playoff games – where he notoriously partnered with Darnell Nurse for some of the best and worst moments of the postseason. After three years in Edmonton, Ceci will move to his fifth NHL franchise in this trade. He’ll seemingly – and perhaps surprisingly – become San Jose’s top right defenseman, joining a room occupied by Jan Rutta and Matt Benning. He’ll be the second-most experienced on the blue-line, though leader Marc-Edouard Vlasic – who’s just four games shy of 1,300 career games, though he became a routine healthy scratch last season.

Ceci’s departure opens a big hole in the Oilers’ blue line, which could finally yield the opportunity that Broberg’s been waiting for. He’s only averaged 12:42 in ice time through 81 career games and hasn’t played over 19 minutes in a single game since November of 2021. Broberg has yielded 13 career points in the limited role, though stepping into top-four minutes could be enough to kick the former top-10 pick into high gear.

That could cost them winger Holloway, who’s scored 18 career points – and added seven in 25 games this postseason. Holloway was drafted 14th overall in the 2020 NHL Draft, selected after a strong freshman year at the University of Wisconsin, where he totaled 52 points in 58 games over two years in Wisconsin before turning pro in 2021. He has since bounced between the NHL and AHL lineups, showing flashes of promise as a hefty play-driver but never finding his spark. His 6-foot-1, 206-pound frame is just 10 pounds heavier than winger Vasily Podkolzin, who Edmonton acquired for a 2025 third-round pick earlier today. Podkolzin fits into the same conversation as Holloway and Broberg – a former top draft pick struggling to show what he can do at the top level. The size similarities and Podkolzin’s cheap $1MM cap hit seem to back the idea that Holloway could be headed to St. Louis – though nothing is official yet.

Regardless of their decision with Broberg and Holloway, Edmonton emerges from this swap with young defender Ty Emberson, who played through his first 30 NHL games last season, scoring 10 points and showing value as a shutdown defender on a struggling San Jose roster. But a lower-body laceration suffered in February cut Emberson’s rookie year short, leaving Sharks fans guessing where his upside might fall.

Multiple teams have shown interest in Emberson at one point. He was initially drafted by the Arizona Coyotes ahead of a three-year tenure at the University of Wisconsin, where he managed 34 points in 101 games. Emberson turned pro with the Tuscon Roadrunners in 2020, getting a taste of tougher competition before a 2022 trade to the New York Rangers in exchange for Patrick Nemeth and draft picks in 2025 and 2026. New York signed Emberson to a one-year, league-minimum contract but placed him on waivers two months later. San Jose placed a claim as the fourth team on the priority list, ultimately pushing Emberson into his first NHL role. He’ll now move to Edmonton with the chance for even more growth as he battles Broberg and Nurse for ice time on the right-hand side.

Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.

Carolina Hurricanes Make Front Office Changes

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General manager of the Carolina Hurricanes, Eric Tulsky, continues to organize his front office after former general manager Don Waddell resigned from the team in late May. The organization announced today they have hired Tyler Dellow as assistant general manager and promoted Darren Yorke to associate general manager and GM of the AHL’s Chicago Wolves.

Dellow has been in the NHL for the better part of the last decade as he served as an analytic consultant for the Edmonton Oilers from 2014-16 and as the vice president of hockey analytics for the New Jersey Devils from 2019-24. In his shift over to the Hurricanes organization, Dellow’s analytical background is eerily similar to Tulsky’s with the latter serving as an analyst and director of analytics in Carolina from 2014-20.

Adding to his strong portfolio, Dellow earned a law degree from the University of Toronto and served as a civil litigation lawyer in Toronto before moving to hockey. The Hurricanes are making Dellow responsible for overseeing data analysis and compliance with the salary cap and the current collective bargaining agreement given his strong background.

Yorke has been a longtime fixture in Carolina’s front office with his first role coming in 2010-11 as a video scout. After seven years as a scout, Yorke briefly became the director of scouting in Carolina for one year before becoming the team’s director of player personnel in 2018-19. Tulsky and Yorke were named assistant general managers in 2020-21 and Yorke’s scouting and developmental background should make him an ideal candidate to oversee the AHL operations.

Snapshots: Team Canada, Pacioretty, Marushev

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True best-on-best men’s hockey is only about six months away from making its return at the 4 Nations Face-Off. The countries participating have already named their first six roster players for the event, with Canada already confirming they’ll be taking Connor McDavid, Nathan MacKinnon, Sidney Crosby, Cale Makar, Brayden Point and Brad Marchand.

But there are still many roster decisions still to be made, especially for the league’s most common nationality. To that end, Luke Fox of Sportsnet listed some dark-horse youngsters that could challenge for spots. Most of them would be repping the senior team for the first time, although a few have World Championship experience.

Look for Quinton Byfield, Alexis Lafrenière and Mason McTavish to get outside consideration for bottom-six roles, Fox opines, while Thomas Harley and Owen Power will push to find spots on the blue line. But the biggest question mark at any international event for the Canadians recently has been goaltending, and that won’t change for the February tournament.

As such, look for Blues backup Joel Hofer to push for a spot on the final roster, Fox says. The 24-year-old finished 11th in Calder Trophy voting last season after posting a 15-12-1 record, .913 SV% and 2.65 GAA in 27 starts and three relief appearances behind Jordan Binnington in St. Louis.

Other tidbits from around the league:

  • If the Sharks aren’t content with the veteran pickups they’ve made so far this offseason, they should approach free-agent winger Max Pacioretty about attending training camp on a PTO, opines Max Miller of The Hockey News. San Jose was busy insulating rookies Macklin Celebrini and Will Smith this summer, adding Tyler Toffoli and Alexander Wennberg in free agency and claiming Barclay Goodrow off waivers from the Rangers. But the club could still have a bit of a competition brewing for roster spots up front, especially if captain Logan Couture isn’t healthy enough to return to play after osteitis pubis cost him nearly all of 2023-24. Pacioretty has played just 91 games combined over the past three seasons due to multiple Achilles tendon tears, and the 35-year-old had just four goals in 47 games with the Capitals last year.
  • Former Golden Knights prospect Maxim Marushev is on the move in his native Russia, dropping down from the KHL to the VHL with Metallurg Novokuznetsk for 2024-25 (per a team announcement). Marushev, now 25, was a seventh-round pick of the Golden Knights in 2020. He played parts of three seasons for their AHL affiliate, the Henderson Silver Knights, recording 13 goals and 24 assists for 37 points in 125 games. Upon the expiry of his entry-level contract in 2023, he wasn’t issued a qualifying offer and returned home. However, he managed just one point in 28 KHL games last year, split between Chelyabinsk and Novosibirsk.

Minor Transactions: 8/16/24

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As per usual, we’re keeping track of some of the notable moves from around the minors and European leagues today:

  • Diminutive winger Austin Ortega won’t be heading to Russia after all. The 30-year-old California native signed a one-year deal with Admiral Vladivostok of the Kontinental Hockey League back in May, but the league announced today that Admiral had terminated his contract. Ortega spent a brief period in the Ducks’ system after graduating from the University of Nebraska-Omaha in 2017, and while he was immensely productive with 45 points in 29 ECHL games and 21 points in 35 AHL games, he didn’t earn an NHL contract. He’s been overseas since 2018 and spent the last three seasons with EHC Munich in Germany, where he won a DEL championship in 2023.
  • As reported earlier in the week, former Hurricanes defense prospect Griffin Mendel is heading to the Czech Extraliga on a one-year deal with Rytiri Kladno, the team announced. Mendel, 25, split last year between the AHL’s Chicago Wolves and the ECHL’s Norfolk Admirals while on a two-way deal with Carolina, but the 6’6″ left-shot was limited to 14 points and a -6 rating in 52 games across the two leagues. He wasn’t given a qualifying offer back in June, becoming an unrestricted free agent.
  • 26-year-old defenseman Griffin Luce has settled for an ECHL deal with the Islanders’ affiliate, the Worcester Railers, after spending last season on a two-way deal with the Predators’ AHL affiliate, the Milwaukee Admirals. Luce checks in at 6’3″ and 216 lbs and was demoted to Nashville’s ECHL affiliate in Atlanta for most of last year, where he had 12 points in 63 games with a -9 rating. The stay-at-home defender will look to work his way back up the organizational depth chart and perhaps earn an AHL deal with New York’s primary affiliate in Bridgeport later on.

This page may be updated throughout the day.

Minor Transactions: 8/15/24

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We saw a couple of NHL transactions today with a pair of PTOs being handed out.  In the meantime, some former NHL-contracted players recently landed contracts which are among the deals in our latest roundup of minor moves.

  • Philadelphia’s AHL affiliate in Lehigh Valley officially announced the previously reported signing of goaltender Keith Petruzzelli to a one-year deal.  The 24-year-old was originally a prospect of Detroit but didn’t sign with them, instead inking a minor-league deal with Toronto, one that was eventually elevated to an entry-level pact.  Last season, Petruzzelli played in 17 games with the AHL’s Marlies, posting a 3.55 GAA and a .867 SV%, resulting in him being non-tendered in late June.  With there being some uncertainty surrounding Flyers prospect Alexei Kolosov’s plans for the upcoming season, Petruzzelli will serve as some insurance between the pipes.
  • Forward Blake McLaughlin has inked a one-year deal with AHL Hartford (affiliate of the Rangers), per a team release. The 24-year-old split last season between the AHL and ECHL, notching two assists in 29 games with AHL San Diego but was much more productive with ECHL Tulsa, recording 25 points in 21 appearances but it wasn’t enough to earn a qualifying offer earlier this summer.
  • The Canucks’ AHL affiliate in Abbotsford announced the signings of forward Zach Okabe and defenceman Zach Berzolla to one-year deals. Okabe turned pro late last season after wrapping up his college career with a 24-point effort at St. Cloud State and got into nine games with AHL Cleveland, recording three points.  Berzolla, meanwhile, has spent the majority of his four professional campaigns in the ECHL but did get into 17 games with AHL Hartford last season.
  • Seattle’s farm team in Coachella Valley announced the re-signing of goaltender Jack LaFontaine to a one-year deal. The 26-year-old was originally drafted by Carolina and left college early to sign with them, getting into one NHL contest before spending the last two years exclusively in the minors.  LaFontaine primarily played with ECHL Kansas City (the Kraken’s affiliate at that level) last season, posting a 2.77 GAA with a .911 SV% in 23 regular season games.

International Notes: Filppula, Has, Andrighetto

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Triple Gold Club member Valtteri Filppula appears to be returning home for what is likely his final professional season. The 40-year-old is expected to join Jokerit of Finland’s second-tier Mestis for 2024-25, Sami Hoffrén and Marko Lempinen of Helsingen Sanomat report.

Filppula, a third-round pick of the Red Wings back in 2002, won the Stanley Cup with them six years later as part of a 16-year, 1,056-game NHL career. Split between the Wings, Lightning, Flyers and Islanders, he amassed 197 goals, 333 assists, 530 points, a -4 rating, and a 50.5% career win rate in the dot in the regular season.

The two-way pivot returned to Europe after becoming a free agent in 2021, and he’s spent the last three seasons in Switzerland with Genève-Servette HC of the National League. He was a premier offensive presence there, even in his late 30s, scoring 47 goals and 84 assists for 131 points in 145 games. But after a pair of seasons around a point per game, his production dropped off to 33 points in 51 games last year.

Filppula was a member of the Finnish national team that won gold at the Winter Olympics and the World Championship in 2022, making him the first Finn to win both in addition to a Stanley Cup. He now returns to Jokerit, where he played for two seasons before coming to the NHL in 2005.

The Helsinki-based franchise was once one of the top clubs in Europe, but their decision to leave the top Finnish league for Russia’s Kontinental Hockey League in 2013 proved fateful. They withdrew from the KHL midseason in 2022 following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and missed 2022-23 entirely before restarting operations in Mestis last year.

More notable items from abroad:

  • Former Capitals defense prospect Martin Has has signed a tryout with HC Plzen of the Czech Extraliga, per a team announcement. A fifth-round pick back in 2019, Has never rose above the ECHL level in the Washington organization, spending 2022-23 with the South Carolina Stingrays before his signing rights expired, making him a UFA. Has, 23, spent last season with the ECHL’s Fort Wayne Komets, where the 6’4″ right-shot was limited to five points and a -14 rating in 62 games. The Czech native will now look to latch on in one of the premier European professional leagues.
  • It doesn’t appear that an NHL comeback is in the cards for Sven Andrighetto, as he’s inked a four-year extension with the Swiss National League club ZSC Lions. Andrighetto, 31, is a Zurich native, and he had 31 points in 40 games for his hometown club last year before leading them to an NL championship. The 2013 third-round pick of the Canadiens scored 31 goals and 83 points in 216 NHL games with Montreal and Colorado between 2014 and 2019.

Jakub Vrana Joins Capitals On PTO

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The Capitals are bringing in free-agent winger Jakub Vrana on a PTO for training camp, per a team announcement.

It’s a homecoming of sorts for Vrana, who the Caps drafted 14th overall in 2014. The 6’0″, 195-lb winger once looked to be well on his way to becoming a top-six fixture in the nation’s capital, recording back-to-back seasons of 24 and 25 goals just before the COVID-19 pandemic. But Washington decided to part ways with him the following season, trading him to the Red Wings at the 2021 deadline as part of a package that fetched them Anthony Mantha.

Things started well for Vrana in Detroit. He finished 2020-21 on a tear, recording eight goals and three assists for 11 points in 11 games. An RFA that summer, he inked a three-year, $15.75MM deal that looked to be good value for a player who had established himself as a consistent 20-goal threat.

However, a shoulder injury sustained during training camp in the fall cost him most of 2021-22, a setback he’s never truly recovered from. Vrana played just 31 games for Detroit after the surgery amid a months-long stint in the NHL/NHLPA Player Assistance Program and multiple minor-league assignments, culminating in a trade to the Blues at the 2023 deadline.

Once again, early returns were strong for Vrana after a change of scenery. He averaged 15:10 per game across 20 appearances for St. Louis to close the season, his highest usage since his post-deadline stint with Detroit two years earlier. He responded with 10 goals and 14 points in 20 games, finishing second on the team in goals during that span.

Unfortunately, the momentum didn’t carry over into last season. Vrana started the season back in a bottom-six role and had just two goals and six points in 19 games before the Blues placed him on waivers in mid-December. He cleared without incident and, aside from a brief call-up in January, spent the rest of the season on assignment to the AHL’s Springfield Thunderbirds.

Vrana had good numbers on the farm, posting 16 goals and 20 assists for 36 points in 42 games. His 0.86 points per game ranked second behind Adam Gaudette’s 1.06. But after failing to land an everyday role in St. Louis, it wasn’t surprising to see them let him walk to unrestricted free agency this summer.

Now 28, Vrana faces an uphill climb to earn a spot on the NHL roster out of camp with the Capitals. He’ll be in competition with a pair of recent first-round picks in Hendrix Lapierre and Ivan Miroshnichenko, and he also may need to supersede UFA pickup Taylor Raddysh, who had 14 points in 73 games with the Blackhawks last season. There will be a spot for him if he can show enough flashes of his pre-surgery form, though, and he could end up being a bargain-bin pickup on a two-way deal.

In 284 games with Washington from 2016 to 2021, Vrana had 76 goals, 81 assists, 157 points, and a +36 rating in 284 regular-season games. He shot 13.1% and averaged 13:41 per game. He contributed three goals and five assists in 23 playoff games during the Capitals’ 2018 Stanley Cup win but had no points in 15 combined playoff games in 2019 and 2020.

Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.

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