Articles in NHL Teams

from Travis Yost of TSN,

Who is Filip Hronek?

Not in the literal sense. We have seen Hronek play in more than 300 games at this point of his career, with the 25-year-old blueliner spending five seasons with the Detroit Red Wings organization before being dealt to Vancouver at last year’s trade deadline.

Despite his looming restricted free agency status (his current three-year contract expires at the end of the 2023-24 regular season), the Canucks were aggressive in their pursuit, and ended up forking over a first- and second-round pick to add the defenceman. Perhaps for good reason: Hronek at his best is a fantastic puck carrier and transitional player, one who can ignite a team’s offence from the blueline. We saw flashes of it when he was with Detroit, even amidst a rebuilding lineup that was shallow on high-end talent.

But it hasn’t always been great with Hronek. On those same talent-weak teams, we saw him struggle from time to time defending the run of play. Video of the first few years of his career is ripe with turnovers against sustained defensive-zone pressure, and even when Hronek wasn’t giving the puck away, he was all too willing to chip the puck out of the zone or simply play it off the boards.

That style of play tends to run very counter to what teams expect from top-four puck movers in the modern era, as defencemen are increasingly tasked with driving offensive play.

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from Matt Vensel of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette,

A significant shakeup is coming to the Penguins’ television broadcast team in the wake of the team purchasing and rebranding AT&T SportsNet Pittsburgh.

Steve Mears and Bob Errey will not return in their roles, per sources. Josh Getzoff is expected to move over from the radio side to replace Mears as the play-by-play man. Colby Armstrong will likely also take on a prominent TV role.

Despite tremendous local ratings with the previous crew calling games on ATTSN, major changes seemed possible as the Penguins and Fenway Sports Group homed in on their purchase of ATTSN from Warner Bros. Discovery.

News of changes to the TV broadcast team began to leak out Friday, one day after the Penguins announced they had agreed, effective Oct. 2, to acquire ATTSN and would rebrand the regional sports network as SportsNet Pittsburgh.

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from Matt Larkin of The Daily Faceoff,

Which franchises have gotten noticeably worse on paper as training camps approach? I’ve marked down five.

5. Winnipeg Jets

Out: Pierre-Luc Dubois, Blake Wheeler, David Rittich, Sam Gagner

In: Gabe Vilardi, Alex Iafallo, Rasmus Kupari, Laurent Brossoit

If you’re a Jets fan, would you rather see them higher on this list, having also traded Connor Hellebuyck and Mark Scheifele? We knew GM Kevin Cheveldayoff eyed some significant changes entering the offseason, but he’s opted for more of a half measure at the moment after shipping out Pierre-Luc Dubois in a blockbuster with the Los Angeles Kings and buying out Blake Wheeler. As it stands, the Jets have replaced two of their top-nine forwards with lower-ceiling depth, albeit Gabe Vilardi did break out for 23 goals last season. But they’re also still in possession of Hellebuyck and Scheifele for now, meaning they haven’t totally turned over their team identity. Is this team a contender or stuck in limbo between retool and rebuild? Whatever they are, they don’t look like a better team than they were a year ago.

4. Toronto Maple Leafs

Out: Michael Bunting, Ryan O’Reilly, Luke Schenn, Noel Acciari, Alex Kerfoot, Erik Gustafsson, Justin Holl, Zach Aston-Reese

In: Tyler Bertuzzi, John Klingberg, Max Domi, Ryan Reaves, Martin Jones, Simon Benoit

New GM Brad Treliving took over as GM of the Leafs in late May and, after roughly a month of assessing his roster, went to work making over the team with an evident focus on intangibles. The likes of Tyler Bertuzzi, Max Domi and Ryan Reaves don’t constitute upgrades over the losses in Toronto’s top nine, but they theoretically bring more of the pushback Toronto lacked at crucial moments during their Round-2 defeat to the Florida Panthers last spring. John Klingberg makes for an interesting reclamation project, but he’s a wobbly replacement for Luke Schenn, who was Toronto’s best all-around defenseman after coming over as a trade-deadline rental last winter. This team has injected plenty of personality and vigor but looks decidedly shallower and less defensively conscientious than it was by the 2022-23 season’s end. If you’re trying to see a silver lining? Tell yourself that the Leafs have traded in a few regular-season wins for the fiery types of players who help will them to a few more playoff wins.

3 more teams....

from Tom Gulitti of the NHL/s website,

Carl Hagelin announced his retirement Wednesday after 11 NHL seasons.

Hagelin, who won the Stanley Cup with the Pittsburgh Penguins in 2016 and 2017, hasn't played since sustaining a left eye injury when he was struck with a stick blade during practice with the Washington Capitals on March 1, 2022.

The 35-year-old forward also twice underwent surgery on his left hip while spending all of last season on long-term injured reserve with Washington.

"It's been an amazing ride but it ends here," Hagelin posted on Instagram. "Unfortunately, my eye injury is too severe to keep playing the game I love. I'm extremely grateful for all the memories hockey has given me and I've loved every single day of it."

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via the Toronto Maple Leafs,

Toronto Maple Leafs General Manager Brad Treliving announced today that the club has signed Head Coach Sheldon Keefe to a multi-year contract extension.

Keefe, 42, was named the 31st Head Coach in Maple Leafs history on November 20, 2019. Through parts of four seasons with the club (267 regular season games), Keefe has coached the team to a 166-71-30 record to rank him sixth in wins in the franchise's 105-year history. Under Keefe, Toronto has set franchise records for most wins (54) and points (115) during a single season (2021-22) while also recording consecutive 50-win campaigns over their two most recent seasons. Since joining the Maple Leafs, Toronto has posted a .622 winning percentage under Keefe, ranking them only behind the Boston Bruins, Colorado Avalanche and Carolina Hurricanes in that span.

The guys from the NHL Network looked back at some of the well known games from The Price Is Right and then looked at a NHL team for the game.

Example, the game Cliffhanger was tied into which non-playoff team will make the post season.

via the YouTube page of the NHL,

The Columbus Blue Jackets made Michigan star Adam Fantilli the 3rd overall pick in the 2023 NHL Entry Draft. Watch Fantilli give an inside look of his life playing for the Wolverines to him embracing his family in Nashville after being picked by Columbus.

from Travis Yost of TSN,

Over the course of Matthews’ career in Toronto, the Maple Leafs are just one goal better than their opponents with him on the ice in the playoffs. That’s still markedly better than the -11 differential the team sees without Matthews, but I think this is the best (and simplest) explanation as to why the Maple Leafs continue to run into walls when it matters most.

When their best player (and best units, by and large) are on the ice against tougher competition, the Leafs can compete, but usually towards break-even. When that group comes off, Toronto is a net-negative team.

Laying significant blame at the feet of Matthews for Toronto’s postseason undoing doesn’t feel appropriate, but it also seems too kind to be dismissive of it as an issue. And when you are soon to make $13.2 million per year in the seasons ahead, waiving away the lack of impact in the postseason just isn’t going to fly.

Toronto, and Matthews specifically, need to figure out how to take their regular-season dominance – and that’s precisely what it’s been, dominance – into April and beyond. With a new contract in tow, the pressure to do just that has increased considerably.

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via the NHL Network's YouTube page,

The Edmonton Oilers have two of the league's top players in Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl, but the duo is still chasing their first Stanley Cup. NHL Tonight discusses whether or not it's Stanley Cup or bust for the Oilers.

from Kevin McGran of the Toronto Star,

- Brad Treliving comes across with a fairly good sense of humour, combined with a decent big-picture take on the world. He’s certainly quotable. Like Brian Burke without the bleeps.

Treliving recalled a story in which he was asked about contract negotiations and whether the two sides were “close.” He told his questioner: “We’re getting there ... there’s only two issues left. We’ve just got to figure out the term and the money.”

- Speaking of uncomfortable, the same goes for Sheldon Keefe after the hiring of Guy Boucher to run the power play. Considering Treliving didn’t hire Keefe, it’s worth watching what kind of start the Leafs get off to. Boucher is an experienced NHL coach who took both Tampa Bay and Ottawa to the Eastern Conference final, and he was on Brendan Shanahan’s short list in 2015 before the Leafs hired Mike Babcock. He’d be the favourite to be the interim” coach if things go sideway for Keefe’s Leafs.

- Not sure what to make of the Leafs defence. John Klingberg wasn’t exactly the kind of blueliner they needed, unless the idea is for Morgan Rielly to play more of a shutdown role. Does Rielly-Klingberg, Jake McCabe-T.J. Brodie, Mark Giordano-Timothy Liljegren do it for you?

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via the YouTube page of the NHL Network,

Elliotte Friedman is back to give his last update of August. He joined NHL Tonight to talk about the Washington Capitals, the NHL's international plans, and the Edmonton Oilers.

via the Buffalo Sabres,

Owner Terry Pegula has been named President of the Buffalo Sabres. He will continue to work closely with COO John Roth leading the business side of the organization and general manager Kevyn Adams leading the hockey side of the organization.

In conjunction with these changes, Pegula Sports & Entertainment (PSE) will be separating resources between the Buffalo Bills and Buffalo Sabres, allowing each respective organization to focus singularly on their efforts.

"We are thankful for the work and effort so many individuals have put into PSE over the years, but feel it is the right time for them to return home to separate organizations," Sabres owner and president Terry Pegula said. "We feel that now is the right time to dissolve PSE and allow everyone to focus solely on their respective organization. It is a great time to be a Buffalo sports fan and we have a tremendous amount of confidence that this restructuring will allow our businesses to continue to elevate with our teams."

Pegula and Roth will continue to work collaboratively with the business leadership group at the Buffalo Sabres as they guide the organization towards its goal of winning championships.

via the Washington Capitals,

The Washington Capitals have promoted Brian MacLellan to president of hockey operations & general manager and Chris Patrick to associate general manager. In addition, the Capitals have appointed Dick Patrick to the position of chairman of the Capitals.

from Dan Rosen of the NHL's website,

They went to the Stanley Cup Final three straight seasons, winning the Stanley Cup in 2020 and 2021.

When the Lightning start training camp next month, they should be motivated and probably still angry about losing to the Toronto Maple Leafs in the first round last season. But they'll also be a veteran team that is rested, healed and healthy.

It might be what they need be a Stanley Cup contender this season.

"There was no doubt that the guys were absolutely crushed and bummed we lost, but two days later it was like, 'Oh my God, I need some rest,'" Lightning coach Jon Cooper said. "You felt it with the players. Hopefully that will be the positive change for us, that our guys will come in rested, and first and foremost, our goalie."

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from Steve Simmons of the Toronto Sun,

... Who gets to the top of the mountain first?

McDavid is there already as an individual player. His flag is in the ground all by itself. It isn’t the flag he cherishes. That’s the Cup. Leafs president Brendan Shanahan won his first Cup in Detroit in his 10th season, which speaks sometimes for his overall patience, and he won that alongside Steve Yzerman, playing in his 14th year.

McDavid is one season away from a decade in the league. Matthews follows right behind him. The race isn’t first among equals, because McDavid and Matthews aren’t equals: But how much fun would a Stanley Cup final between the two be? Money isn’t what either is playing for anymore.

- Matthews did not score a goal against the Florida Panthers in Round 2 of the playoffs. He did not score a goal in Games 5, 6 and 7 against the Montreal Canadiens in 2021 and did not score a goal in the clinching Game 5 against Columbus in 2020. Goal-scoring is what he does best. He has led the NHL in goals since he entered the league in 2016. But he is just 25th in playoff goals scored in that time, just behind T.J. Oshie and ahead of David Perron.

- You can assume — or at least I am — that the Leafs, Lightning, Hurricanes, Rangers and Devils will all be in the Eastern Conference playoffs this season. But what about the Bruins without Patrice Bergeron and David Krejci? What about the Penguins with Erik Karlsson? What about the young, rising Senators and Sabres? What about the tight defensive, goaltending-rich Islanders? What about the Cup finalist Panthers? That’s 11 teams for eight spots without counting Washington. The meaningless regular season won’t be so meaningless this year.

more on the first topic plus additional hockey notes, most of them Toronto related but not all...

from Mark Spector of Sportsnet,

If the Edmonton Oilers were a cake, or some fantastic dessert that the recipe book promises will wow your guests, then Ken Holland is the chef, pacing the kitchen floor and glancing through the oven window.

Holland’s ingredients have long since been purchased, measured and folded into the bowl — give or take a one-year deal for Connor Brown, or the icing sugar that is a Brandon Sutter Professional Try Out.

Now he waits, confident in his ability to think on his feet with the right PTO, or a deadline deal come late February that can bring in the defenceman (or goalie?) he’ll need at that point on the season.

"We're going to start with the seven defencemen who finished last year. The goalies are set," Holland said over the phone on Friday afternoon. "Up front, we signed Brandon Sutter this summer. We’ll go to camp, see what they can do, watch the waiver wire …"

Look, if his team resembled a mud pie, you could criticize Holland for a summer that featured only the one major move in Brown — who will see $3.225 million of his $4 million earnings come off the 2024-25 cap in the form of bonus overages. It’s not perfect — especially if Jack Campbell doesn’t find his game this season — but it’s a pretty good roster Holland has built here in Edmonton.

And honestly, just keeping the younger players that a team has to keep has exhausted much of Holland’s ability to make material change in Edmonton, even if he wanted to.

“This is my fifth year here in Edmonton. The cap has gone up $2 million in five years,” he said. “We brought in (Zach) Hyman. We brought in (Evander) Kane. We brought in (Mattias) Ekholm — players who have had a high impact on the team. But it starts to add up.”

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from Kevin Paul Dupont of the Boston Globe,

NHL training camps are getting ready to open, the new season is only some six weeks away, and that means Alex Chiasson is betting again, with both hands and both feet. No one in the NHL beats the house odds as consistently as this guy when it comes to wagering on himself.

Chiasson, 32, agreed to report to Bruins camp Sept. 20 on a professional tryout agreement, promised nothing but some space to pull on his skates at the club’s Brighton workout facility and a chance to catch the eye of coach Jim Montgomery.

Chiasson knows the auditioning drill better than anyone. A veteran of 651 NHL games, this will be the fifth time Chiasson has reported to an NHL training camp on a PTO. He landed a job the first three times, first with Washington (2017), then Edmonton (’18), and next in Vancouver (’21). Last September, after not securing a job with the Coyotes, he ultimately landed a late-season spot on Detroit’s NHL roster after a protracted tuneup with the Red Wings’ AHL affiliate in Grand Rapids, Mich.

“I took my hockey bag, a backpack and suitcase,” said Chiasson, recalling his job-seeking journey last season that finally brought him to Detroit, where he cobbled together a respectable 6-3—9 line in 20 games, “and I lived out of a hotel room in Grand Rapids for almost three months. It was a good end of the year there, and I was hopeful things would work out, but the business end of things … it can be a tough business.”

The PTO path can be especially cruel. It worked out ideally here in the fall of ‘07 for journeyman forward Glen Metropolit, invited by then-Bruins GM Peter Chiarelli. Metro played all 82 games, the No. 3 center behind Marc Savard and Marco Sturm, and had 33 points.

continued plus more topics including Elias Lindholm would be a good fit in Boston...

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EDMONTON, AB - The Edmonton Oilers have signed defenceman Evan Bouchard to a two-year contract extension with an average annual value (AAV) of $3.9 million.

The 23-year-old has scored 23 goals and 66 assists in 184 career NHL regular season games, as well as seven goals and 19 assists in 28 career Stanley Cup Playoffs appearances.

The Oakville, Ont. native has reached 40 points in each of his past two seasons -- his first two full NHL campaigns -- recording 43 in 81 games in 2021-22, followed by 40 in 82 games last year.

Bouchard led all blueliners in scoring during the 2023 Stanley Cup Playoffs with 17 points (four goals, 13 assists) in 12 games. The next highest defencemen scorers were Florida's Brandon Montour and Vegas' Shea Theodore, each with 13 points in 21 games.

The right-shot rearguard was selected 10th overall by Edmonton at the 2018 NHL Draft.

from Steve Simmons of the Toronto Sun,

Auston Matthews, who didn’t score a goal against the Florida Panthers in the playoffs, will soon be the highest-paid player in the history of the National Hockey League.

That won’t happen for another season. But the pressure that has always surrounded Matthews, the pressure he has dealt with rather comfortably in his seven seasons with the Maple Leafs, will intensify come April — and every April after that for the duration of his deal.

This is just a beginning in a way for Matthews and the Leafs. We know the prime of his career will be played in Toronto. That much is certain now with his new four-year, $53-million extension with the Leafs, nicely equipped with the perfunctory no-movement clause.

Now it’s up to Matthews to make it count in a way that Hart Trophies, Rocket Richard trinkets and the individual hardware that he has earned matter less than victories in the post-season. The deal took almost 11 weeks to reach fruition. The negotiation was challenging, as many are.

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from Mollie Walker of the New York Post,

Alexis Lafreniere is set to continue his Rangers career after signing a two-year, $4.65 million deal on Wednesday, The Post has learned.

The Rangers’ 2020 first-overall pick is the last restricted free agent the club had to sign, officially bringing their in-house offseason business to a close with just under a month to go until training camp.

It became clear that no other team planned to present Lafreniere with an offer sheet, so there was no real sense of urgency to get a deal done.

As a result, negotiations came together a bit later in the offseason.

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from Tom Gulitti of the NHL's website,

William Nylander wants to remain with the Toronto Maple Leafs long term and the forward said he is unconcerned about heading into the final season of his current contract without signing a new deal.

"For me, the contract, obviously, I want it to work where I can stay there and be there," Nylander said at NHL European Player Media Tour on Wednesday. "There's no other place I want to play, but I still have one more year left. I don't understand why there's such a big rush to do something right now. I still have one more year left."

Nylander is heading into the final season of a six-year, $41.4 million contract (average annual value $6.9 million) he signed on Dec. 1, 2018, and will be eligible to become an unrestricted free agent when it expires.

But the 27-year-old said he has no interest in exploring the UFA market next summer.

"I want to be in Toronto as long as I can," he said. "That's just where my mind is at."

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SCOTTSDALE, ARIZONA --- Arizona Coyotes General Manager Bill Armstrong announced today that the Coyotes have signed Head Coach André Tourigny to a three-year contract extension. As per club policy, the terms of the contract were not disclosed.

"We are very pleased to sign André to a three-year extension," said Armstrong. "He is an excellent coach, leader and communicator who has helped us establish a tremendous culture in our dressing room. Our players like him, respect him and compete hard for him. We are thrilled to have him signed as our head coach for the next three years."

from TSN,

Vancouver Canucks star Elias Pettersson has put extension talks "on hold" as he prepares for the upcoming season.

The 24-year-old centre is entering the final season of a three-year, $22.05 million deal, which carries a cap hit of $7.35 million. He is scheduled for restricted free agency next July.

"I've just put that on hold," Pettersson told NHL.com on Wednesday.(opens in a new tab) "I still have one more year left. I've been wanting to focus on training this summer and the contract will sort itself out."

Canucks general manager Patrik Allvin also took a passive approach to the contract situation in June, stating team would sit down with Pettersson's camp "when the time is right."

Pettersson scored 39 goals last season, topping the 30-goal mark for the second straight year, and also beat his career-best point total by 34 with 102 points in 80 games.

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