The “32 in 32” series has begun at the Official NHL site, so it must be August and we must be inching forward in the offseason. With a shorter preseason and training camp — but 84 games now…yay?! — the summer will have an even longer slow window.
Still, some Islanders (and ex-Islanders) bits from the past week follow, plus a curious long-term bet in Pittsburgh.
Islanders News
The Islanders have poached a new assistant GM/head of their AHL affiliate, grabbing Gold from the Bruins organization. Chris Lamoriello remains in the front office but is no longer GM of the AHL team. [Isles | Newsday | Post]
Has it really been 10 years under the new ownership? Jon Ledecky, Mathieu Darche and others look back and ahead. [Newsday]
Kyle Palmieri says his rehab is great and he’s ready for the season, as one does. [Newsday]
An update on Marcus Gidlof, a sort of afterthought inclusion in the Brayden Schenn trade, but one who still might have potential to be a pro in North America. [STLtoday]
Speaking of ex-Isles, Hudson Fasching (latest of the Blue Jackets) has now signd in Sweden. [THN]
And very short-term ex-Isles Mike Reilly had fun in his day with the Cup. [NHL]
Islanders grade: D. While there’s plenty to like about this roster construction, it’s hard not to look at this quiet summer and feel like it’s a missed opportunity — especially while Schaefer remains on his rookie deal.
2027-28 third-jersey vote update:
#IslesNation – Because of the incredible number of jersey submissions, we're expanding the voting to an 8️⃣ jersey bracket.
Up until Thursday, the only outstanding order of business for Kyle Dubas and the Pittsburgh Penguins was to lock up RFA forward Ville Koivunen for the 2026-27 season.
And, on Thursday, he did indeed get locked up. But it was on terms that almost no one expected.
The Penguins and Koivunen agreed to terms on an eight-year deal worth $4 million annually, the team announced. The long-term contract comes with no trade protection, takes effect in the 2026-27 season, and runs through the end of the 2034-35 season. And because of the new rules regarding contracts under the new CBA that takes effect on Sept. 16, Koivunen could very well be the last NHL player to sign an eight-year deal, as extensions in the future will be capped off at seven years.
When taking a gander at some of the other NHL players signed to eight-year deals, Koivunen doesn't exactly fit the mold. He's played in just 47 NHL games and has two goals and 14 points, which means he is a largely unproven young player who wouldn't typically fetch that term.
However, Dubas pointed to the rapidly changing market, among other factors, as a big reason behind the term.
"There were many factors that led to us going down this path," Dubas said via email with local Penguins' reporters. "But the primary factor was watching the way the market evolved over the season and especially the summer and trying to best plan for the future of the Penguins. We view the contract as a bet – on Ville, his potential, and our belief that he is going to do the work in to reach that potential."
He expanded on this: "The evolution of the market is a key factor, for sure. The way that older forwards who have lower lineup ceilings were paid as free agents and watching the way the restricted free agent market took shape led us to take a different view on how we wanted to handle our own players, for sure."
In other words, the Penguins are betting pretty big on Koivunen here. Sure, the $4 million average annual value isn't the end of the world, but the eight-year term is a big commitment that will take the 23-year-old Koivunen through age 31. It also makes him somewhat waivers-proof, as Pittsburgh currently has 15 forwards on their NHL roster and most certainly will be forced to waive a player or two at this point - barring no further moves - and teams are unlikely to take on Koivunen's contract on the waiver wire.
Even with the term, though, it will be very difficult for this contract to hurt the Penguins in any substantial way:
- If Koivunen plays up to his ceiling potential as a top-six winger, $4 million AAV will look like one of the NHL's most bargain contracts.
- If Koivunen doesn't quite play up to his ceiling potential but becomes an NHL regular, he will pretty much meet the value of his $4 million AAV.
- If Koivunen is a bust, the Penguins will have several options, including a sub-26 buyout window, burying the contract, or trading him somewhere else (given the low enough AAV of the contract).
So, the contract itself isn't necessarily the issue here.
It's the precedent that the contract sets.
Koivunen is the first in a wave of Penguins' prospects who, while trying to make his big break into the NHL, became an RFA in need of a new contract. Again, he is largely unproven, even more so than Egor Chinakhov, who just signed a three-year extension worth $6.25 million annually.
Next summer, goaltender Sergei Murashov, defenseman Owen Pickering, and forwards Rutger McGroarty, Avery Hayes, and Tristan Broz will all be RFAs in need of new contracts. All of them will likely see the NHL at some point this season, and each of them will have varying degrees of NHL experience and varying degrees of potential and production.
Even if none of the above have what amounts to a breakout NHL season, what if they put up similar numbers to Koivunen in a similar NHL sample size? What if they exceed Koivunen's production prior to signing his long-term deal?
Koivunen's eight-year contract only sets a precedent for these players that, should they match or best his NHL sample size up to this point, they'll feel they've earned a similar type of contract. This is especially true in the cases of Murashov, McGroarty, and Pickering, who - like Koivunen - are expected to have ceilings a bit higher than the others.
So, if that precedent is set with this contract, what will McGroarty ask for and expect next season? Murashov? Pickering? Hayes and Broz? What about Ben Kindel and Harrison Brunicke in a few years? The reality is that this contract has set the bar higher for those fringe NHL prospects and even the more surefire NHL talents, and they will expect nothing less than what Koivunen got if they outperform or continue to outperform what he's done so far.
Sure, given the ludicrous amount of cap space the Penguins are set to have in the next several years, they can afford a few Chinakhovs, Koivunens, and other "betting on potential" contracts. But if none of the above players truly break out (Kindel aside) next season but are in the same situation Koivunen found himself in this summer, how many "betting on potential" contracts can the Penguins hand out while still keeping the books open for proven NHL talent and furthering their agenda to take steps toward sustainable contention?
All in all, this contract isn't a huge issue on its own. The big question is how it will change the approach to contracts for the Penguins' homegrown young players moving forward. It's a good thing that Dubas and the organization is willing to bet on their own young talent, and deals like this will look even better if they pan out.
But if they don't, they may have just backed themselves into an obligatory corner that will be difficult to escape.
We all knew the Philadelphia Flyers drafted a big, strong, defenseman when they drafted Maksim Sokolovskii in the 2026 NHL Draft, but we may have underestimated how strong the 18-year-old already is.
As a 6-foot-7, 240-pound rearguard who scored only eight points last year, that is the strength of Sokolovskii's game, after all.
But he's a young, developing prospect who won't really be working out and doing significant amounts of training until next year, when he joins the University of Maine at the NCAA level.
In the meantime, the OHL London Knights had Sokolovskii flip a... 1,000-pound tire in an offseason training video as part of their promotion for their tickets, which go on sale on Friday, according to their post.
The Russian Flyers prospect was only 17 when he was drafted by Philadelphia in the 2026 draft at the end of June, for some context. Imagine how strong Sokolovskii will be in six, seven, or eight years from now?
Obviously, other parts of Sokolovskii's game will need to come along as he progresses in his development. He does have some puck skills and flair, but his puck handling and passing are inconsistent and reduce his ceiling as a player.
If nothing else, though, Sokolovskii's training eliminates any concerns, if there ever were any, about being able to handle competition against older players at the collegiate level next year, since he can already bully anybody he faces in the OHL.
Following an impressive showing at Flyers development camp early last month, Sokolovskii is the undisputed top Flyers prospect at the left defense position, and this only cements his place further.
Barring something unforeseen, the Philadelphia Flyers more or less have their NHL roster set heading into training camp next month.
After a long wait, the Flyers finally re-signed exciting forward prospect Nikita Grebenkin on Thursday evening, inking the Russian winger to a two-year, $2.2 million contract with a $1.1 million AAV.
Grebenkin, 23, recently switched agents, going from Gold Star Hockey powerhouse Dan Milstein to Adel Mansurov of Newport Sports, who wrapped up this lengthy but relatively straightforward negotiation with the Flyers.
And now that Grebenkin is signed, the Flyers have 14 NHL forwards under contract. Unless general manager Danny Briere and Co. swing a trade in the next five weeks, or an injury happens, Grebenkin and his 13 peers are your NHL forwards going into opening night.
The former Toronto Maple Leafs prospect will have to battle with Carl Grundstrom and Noel Acciari for playing time after suffering a season-ending injury in March.
Veterans Luke Glendening and Garnet Hathaway had filled in for Grebenkin after his injury, but Denver Barkey and Alex Bump have established themselves, and Noel Acciari got a decent chunk of money with his $2.8 million cap hit earned in free agency. Tyson Foerster is healthy now, too, so Grebenkin will have to work for the minutes he gets next season and moving forward.
As for the rest of the roster, the last remaining free agent the Flyers have is defenseman Hunter McDonald.
The 6-foot-4, 24-year-old defenseman played in the Flyers' season finale against the Montreal Canadiens last year, making his NHL debut and recording his first NHL point--an assist--in 15:11 of ice time, posting a +3 rating and four penalty minutes.
The Flyers still rate McDonald highly, as further evidenced by his traveling with the team as a ringer in case of injury last season, even though they were never forced to call his number.
McDonald will, however, turn 25 late next season, and the time to establish himself as an NHL player is quickly running out.
Nick Seeler no longer has trade protection, and newcomer Simon Benoit is under contract for only one more year.
The same is true for Rasmus Ristolainen, who has long been a trade candidate and an ace in the hole for the Flyers if and when the right offer comes across their desks.
Like Grebenkin's, that negotiation shouldn't be too difficult for either side, but both sides will assuredly be making their cases on their view of an NHL fit in the meantime.
Danny Briere crossed off his second-to-last restricted free agent of the offseason.
The Flyers agreed to terms with Nikita Grebenkin on a two-year, $2.2 million contract Thursday night. The deal has an average annual value of $1.1 million. Grebenkin will remain a restricted free agent when the contract expires after the 2027-28 season.
The 23-year-old winger had four goals and 10 assists in 55 games last season, his first with the Flyers. The rookie played 11:17 minutes per game. He missed the final 13 games of the regular season and the playoffs because of an upper-body injury that ended up costing him more time than expected.
“Initially we thought it was going to be something short,” Briere said in May, “and it just never got better.”
Grebenkin was rehab skating in late June and early July while the Flyers had development camp. He joined the prospects for some drills and looked pretty good. It’s looking like he’ll be healthy and good to go for training camp, according to a report by Charlie O’Connor of PHLY Sports.
Nikita Grebenkin looking pretty good here as he’s taking part in a session with the prospects.
He ended the season with an upper-body injury and there’s some uncertainty about his status to start next season.
A product of the Scott Laughton trade two seasons ago, Grebenkin turned some heads last training camp. He won a job, showing his ability to hunt the puck and battle for it. His speed and competitiveness made him an intriguing guy in the Flyers’ bottom six.
But he’ll have a ton of competition when this season’s training camp arrives next month. Porter Martone, Denver Barkey and Alex Bump are young wingers coming off difference-making performances down the stretch and in the playoffs. Martone is poised for a big role this season, while Barkey and Bump could be in the lineup on opening night.
Hunter McDonald is the Flyers’ final restricted free agent who needs to be re-signed. The 24-year-old defenseman made his NHL debut last season in the team’s regular-season finale. He’s projected to open this season with AHL affiliate Lehigh Valley.
The Buffalo Sabres made it into the Stanley Cup playoffs last season, ending a 15-year playoff drought. Buffalo went on to beat an upstart Boston Bruins team in the first round before falling to the Montreal Canadiens in the second round.
The Sabres’ step forward in 2025-26 means TheHockeyNews.com’s annual process of grading the Sabres will result in mainly-positive grades, Buffalo is far from a perfect team, but when we’re analyzing their individual performances from last season, we must be more generous than not.
That said, in this particular “Sabres Grades” file, we’re focusing on goalie Ukko-Pekka Luukonen. The 27-year-old Finn appeared in 36 games this past season, posting a .910 save percentage and a 2.52 GAA. But his playoff performance was less than ideal, as he had an .876 SP and 3.18 GAA in six appearances, and in four of six playoff appearances, his SP was .880 or worse.
So, while we’re going to acknowledge Luukkonen’s strong stretches this year, we’re not going to give him an ‘A’ – at least, not just yet:
Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen
Position: Goaltender
Grade: B+
The Skinny: Prior to this past season, Luukkonen had been a workhorse for the Sabres, as he’d played a combined 109 games in two seasons from 2023-2025. But the lesser workload this season resulted in a significant bounce-back season from him this past year. Luukkonen has put up a .910 SP in two of the past three seasons, so you can see why the Sabres have kept him as their de facto starter.
Luukkonen also is signed to a team-friendly contract paying him $4.75-million for the next three seasons. But backup Alex Lyon (.907 SP, 2.77 GAA) provided him with healthy competition, and youngster Colten Ellis is also in the picture. Luukkonen has some no-trade protection – a five-team no-trade list – and if Buffalo did choose to go in a different direction in net, Luukkonen would get a lot of attention based on his strong play in two of the past three years.
Had Luukkonen come into the 2026 post-season and showed consistency between the pipes, his grade here would easily move into ‘A’ territory. But he gets a B+ because his playoff performance left much to be desired.
Let’s not forget – the Sabres were linked to rumors about Winnipeg Jets superstar netminder Connor Hellebuyck. But if Buffalo does pull the trigger on that trade, you have to think Luukkonen would be the player going the other way, so long as Winnipeg isn’t on Luukkonen’s modified no-trade list.
But if that doesn’t happen, much of Buffalo’s season is going to be dependent on how well Luukkonen performs. The Sabres’ defense corps has undergone massive change this summer, and not for the better in the short-term. So Luukkonen will be leaned on at least as much next season, if not more than they leaned on him in seasons before then.
Luukkonen gave Buffalo a great regular-season performance last season. But the goaltending business is a what-have-you-done-for-me-lately line of work – and the lasting memory of Luukkonen last season was him faltering when the games mattered most.
The Sabres may eventually go in another direction, but this series grades Buffalo’s performances last year, and Luukkonen’s efforts were a tale of two worlds. Luukkonen needs to be more consistent next season, because if he can’t, the Sabres will almost assuredly go with another goalie sooner than later.
One of the more contentious rivalries in the NHL in recent years has been between the two Stanley Cup contenders in Florida.
After coming into the league a year apart back in the early 1990s, the Florida Panthers and Tampa Bay Lightning have seen plenty of each other over the past three-plus decades.
It wasn’t until both teams were playoff-worthy and started locking horns during the postseason that the rivalry between the interstate rivals really kicked into high gear.
Two of the players who have been at the forefront of the rivalry in recent years has been Florida’s Matthew Tkachuk and Tampa Bay’s Brandon Hagel.
Both are considered top players for their respective clubs, making the animosity shared between them that much more fun to behold.
"I don't know him personally at all, to be honest,” Hagel said. “We kind of just went at it, and I'm sure he goes at it with a lot of guys.”
In addition to the combative contests played between the Cats and Bolts, Tkachuk and Hagel have seen their conflict go beyond the NHL, as both are also among the first players selected to represent their countries – Tkachuk with the United States and Hagel with Canada – when the time comes for international play.
Most recently, that has been at the 2026 Winter Olympics and the 2025 4 Nations Face-Off, which famously featured a fight-filled opening matchup between the U.S. and Canada in which Tkahcuk and Hagel went toe-to-toe just seconds after the opening faceoff.
“I thought he was tough, to be honest,” Hagel said. “When he asked me at the 4 Nations, I was like, 'Oh boy, I've never squared up in my life, like ever, and now I'm doing it on the biggest stage.’ My heart was just like, 'All right, here we go.’ When you're in the thick of things, and obviously fighting him then and fighting him again, it's kind of one of those things that I'll do it whenever.”
Hagel admitted that dropping the gloves with Tkachuk on a massive stage that had tons of eyeballs on it was one of the cooler things he’s been involved with during his career.
“You couldn’t really make it up,” he said. “Obviously he’s really good at what he does, his job and doing what he has to do. (My phone) was definitely blowing up.”
One of the plays that has helped endear Hagel to the Panthers and the rivalry was a massive hit on Florida captain Sasha Barkov during the first round of the 2025 Stanley Cup Playoffs.
Hagel was given a five-minute major for interference on the play and was subsequently suspended for the following game while Barkov initially went to the locker room but ultimately was no worse for the wear.
“I saw him coming and (the puck) got chipped past (Lightning defenseman Ryan) McDonagh, so in my head I’m just going to line (Barkov) up because he’s going to hit the puck,” Hagel said. “I thought he hit it but McDonagh hit it, so I blew him up. From that standpoint, it is what it is.”
Ultimately, Hagel feels the way that most players and hockey fans do.
As long as nobody is getting hurt, its all a majorly entertaining part of playing hockey and something that makes the sport so unique and interesting.
“Everything that goes on, I think its so good for the game,” said Hagel. “It’s bringing back that rivalry type of thing. You get in a fight, you get punched in the head, you get a broken nose or a black eye, whoop-de-doo, you’re good and you can still play in the game type of thing. I think it’s so good for hockey. I think they’re an unbelievable team, I think they have that winning mentality, and we have that winning mentality too, and those are probably two of the best teams going at it three of four times a year and potentially in the playoffs. Obviously, no one wants to get injured, but I think whatever is going on there and everyone (knows) going into the game, its actually fun to be a part of and I think its so good for the game.”
Photo caption: Feb 28, 2023; Tampa, Florida, USA; Florida Panthers left wingMatthewTkachuk(19) and Tampa Bay Lightning left wing Brandon Hagel (38)fightfor the puck in the first period at Amalie Arena. (Nathan Ray Seebeck-USA TODAY Sports)
It's now been 10 years since the Detroit Red Wings last played in the Stanley Cup Playoffs, a far cry from the days when they were one of the NHL's model franchises. During their run of 25 straight postseason appearances, they reached six Stanley Cup Finals and won four championships.
Things have gone downhill since Detroit was last viewed as a legitimate Stanley Cup contender around 2012. Although the Red Wings made the playoffs from 2013 through 2016, they managed to win just one series during that stretch.
Now, the franchise finds itself in even more uncertainty. The Red Wings are without a general manager following Steve Yzerman's departure last month, and they could soon lose captain Dylan Larkin as well after he requested a trade shortly after the end of the season.
While Yzerman made his share of mistakes during his time as Detroit's general manager, there's no denying that the club's fortunes could have been different had it not been for multiple notable Draft blunders before his return in 2019.
After missing the postseason for the first time in 25 years in 2017, the Red Wings entered that year's Draft with the ninth overall pick, which was used on forward Michael Rasmussen.
While hindsight is 20/20, that selection proved to be another notch in a series of complete misses by former GM Ken Holland and Amateur Scouting Director Tyler Wright, and continues to haunt the Red Wings nearly a decade later, considering what the players they passed on have accomplished.
At 6-foot-6 and 220 pounds, Michael Rasmussen has the physical profile of a prototypical power forward, but he has rarely played that way. Although he scored a combined 63 goals in 97 games over his final two seasons with the WHL's Tri-City Americans, that offensive production has never translated to the NHL.
His best goal-scoring season with the Red Wings came in 2021-22, when he recorded 15 goals in 80 games. He followed that with a career-high 33 points (13 goals, 20 assists) in 2023-24, but his production has declined since, totaling just 21 and 14 points over the past two respective seasons.
Making that harder to swallow is the fact that players like Owen Tippett, Martin Necas, Nick Suzuki, Robert Thomas, Jason Robertson, and Josh Norris were all selected after Rasmussen. All of them have made significant contributions since entering the NHL, leaps and bounds ahead of what Rasmussen has provided for Detroit.
The Red Wings also missed a major opportunity in the 2018 NHL Draft, opting to select Filip Zadina over hometown product Quinn Hughes from the nearby University of Michigan. Zadina has become one of the most notable draft busts of the past decade, while Hughes has developed into one of the NHL's premier players.
There were other notable misses in prior drafts. In 2015, the Red Wings selected Evgeny Svechnikov with the 19th overall pick over names like Brock Boeser, Timo Meier, and Travis Konecny. The following season, Detroit selected defenseman Dennis Cholowski over names such as Alex DeBrincat and Tage Thompson.
Those multiple misses set the Red Wings back years, and made the situation that Yzerman inherited all the more difficult.
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Throughout the entire history of the San Jose Sharks organization, only a single player has ever worn the number 56 during a regular season game: Ethan Cardwell.
Cardwell, who the Sharks drafted in the fourth round of the 2021 NHL Draft as an overage player, has been a key piece for the Sharks' American Hockey League affiliate, the San Jose Barracuda in recent years.
While Cardwell's stock has certainly risen drastically since his draft year, there's still a lot of unknown surrounding his long-term future. He has the potential to turn into an effective bottom-six forward due to his strong work ethic and tendency to not turn away from physicality, but it's also possible he gets stuck between the NHL and the AHL like many players tend to do.
Injuries hampered Cardwell considerably during the 2025-26 season, so he's fallen a bit more under the radar this summer, but he should be a major asset for the Barracuda this coming season.
Cardwell has appeared in 13 games for the Sharks at the NHL level, and since he has now played six or more games in two consecutive seasons, he is no longer classified as a rookie. Meanwhile, at the AHL level, he's played 158 games for the Barracuda scoring 41 goals and 65 assists during that time.
Only one prospect drafted by the Vancouver Canucks in 2021 currently remains with the organization — goaltender Aku Koskenvuo. Forwards Danila Klimovich, Connor Lockhart, and Lucas Forsell, as well as defencemen Jonathan Myrenberg and Hugo Gabrielson have all parted ways with the team since their draft year.
Also part of the organization now, all added within the past year or so, are trade acquisitions Ilya Safonov and Jack Thompson, as well as free-agent signings Anrī Ranvinskis and Matt Stienburg. Here’s how the 2025–26 season went for Koskenvuo, Safonov, Thompson, Ravinskis, and Stienburg.
Aku Koskenvuo
2021 R5, 137 OVR
Abbotsford Canucks, AHL and Kalamazoo Wings, ECHL
The Canucks’ lone 2021 draftee after the departure of Klimovich in free-agency, Koskenvuo spent the 2025–26 season familiarizing himself with pro hockey after two seasons with Harvard University in the NCAA.
Koskenvuo began his first pro season in the ECHL with Kalamazoo, recording a collective total of 59 saves in his first two starts for the K-Wings. The landslide of injuries from both Vancouver and Abbotsford resulted in the goaltender quickly being called-up to the AHL. In his first AHL start, Koskenvuo managed to make 33 saves to backstop Abbotsford to their first win in 11 games. He stayed with Abbotsford for nearly a month before being re-assigned to the ECHL in mid-December.
After some time in the ECHL in December, Koskenvuo was brought back up to Abbotsford in January, in what would be his last stretch of AHL play for the remainder of the year. He played in his final game for Abbotsford on January 30, finishing the year with a 3.20 GAA and .895 SV%. The goaltender was also called-up to the NHL during the Olympic break, serving as a practice netminder with Kevin Lankinen at the Olympics and Thatcher Demko injured.
Koskenvuo will likely see more playing time in Abbotsford during the 2026–27 season, though this will be dependent on what Vancouver chooses to do with goaltender Nikita Tolopilo.
Acquired via trade during the 2025 off-season, Safonov signed his entry-level contract with the Canucks back at the start of June. The forward was previously picked in the sixth round of the 2021 NHL Entry Draft by Chicago, though he never ended up skating for the club that selected him.
Safonov has played for Ak Bars Kazan in the KHL since the 2019–20 season, with the 2025–26 season expected to be his last depending on how his journey to the NHL goes. The forward, whose versatility allows him to play at both center and wing, scored 16 goals and 17 assists in 68 games in the KHL this year. While his team ultimately came short of winning the KHL championship, Safonov did put up two goals and seven assists in 20 playoff games.
Since signing with Vancouver, Safonov has made it clear that his goal in 2026–27 is to make the NHL.
“I am not going there with a guaranteed place in the lineup, and I am not arriving as a star... I will have to prove that I belong, and I am ready for that. Based on the conversations we have had, I understand that I will have an opportunity,” he said in a translated interview with R.org.
Thompson’s time with the Canucks only lasted a total of 14 AHL games in 2025–26, but the defenceman made a strong enough impression to warrant a one-year contract extension signed in mid-June. He went from putting up 12 points in 42 games with the San Jose Barracuda to surpassing that mark in his 14 games with Abbotsford.
The former third-round selection by the Tampa Bay Lightning in 2020 started the season off with the Barracuda, scoring his first goal of the year on November 1 against the Ontario Reign. He played in his final game for San Jose on March 4, before lacing up for the AHL Canucks two days later.
Thompson kicked his Abbotsford campaign off with a notable two goals and three assists in his first two games with the AHL Canucks, recording four multi-point games between then and the end of the season. By the end of the season, the defenceman had already carved out a spot on Abbotsford’s top-pairing.
Thompson will undoubtedly play a big role with Abbotsford come the 2026–27 season, especially now that he has inked an extension with the team.
Anrī Ravinskis
Signed to two-year, $910k AAV contract in 2025
Abbotsford Canucks, AHL
A free-agent signing out of Finland during the 2025 off-season, Ravinskis’ 2025–26 season saw him make both his North American pro hockey and AHL debut. He spent the prior two seasons in Finnish leagues Mestis and Liiga, also skating with the Blainville-Boisbriand Armada in the QMJHL in 2021–22 and 2022–23.
Ravinskis made his AHL debut on October 17 when Abbotsford took on the Laval Rocket. He registered his first AHL point in a 3–2 shootout loss to the Colorado Eagles on November 8, assisting on the game’s opening goal scored by Josh Bloom. The forward scored his first AHL goal on January 2 against the Manitoba Moose, finishing his first season with two goals and two assists in 32 games played.
During 2025–26, Ravinskis also ended up taking part in the first Winter Olympics of his career, as he was named an injury replacement for Team Latvia. While his role with Latvia was limited, the forward did skate in four games with his team.
Matthew Stienburg
Signed to one-year, $850k AAV contract in 2026
Colorado Eagles, AHL
Stienburg is the most recent prospect to join the Canucks, as he signed with the organization in free-agency back on July 2. The forward, who turns 26 in October, was drafted in the third round of the 2019 NHL Entry Draft by the Colorado Avalanche but has only played in a total of eight NHL games.
Stienburg’s hockey career has been pelted by injuries, resulting in his limited playing time on a per-season basis. The forward has not played in more than 20 NHL and AHL regular and post-season games put together through the past two years, with the 2025–26 season seeing him play in only eight with the Eagles. In the eight games that he did skate in during the 2025–26 season, Stienburg scored two goals and one assist.
Stienburg is expected to play for Abbotsford during the 2026–27 season, likely joining fellow free-agent forward signings Akil Thomas and Trey Fix-Wolansky.
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The Calgary Flames have fully embraced their youth movement, but developing prospects isn’t just about giving young players ice time. It’s about putting them in an environment where they can learn what it takes to become professionals.
On the surface, it’s a one-year, two-way contract worth $850,000 for a veteran depth forward. Dig a little deeper, though, and it’s easy to see why Jones could become one of the most important players on the Calgary Wranglers this season.
Credit: Sergei Belski-USA TODAY Sports
This isn’t a player walking into an unfamiliar situation. Jones was part of the Wranglers from the very beginning, playing a key role during the club’s inaugural 2022-23 season. He posted 54 points and a +28 rating while helping Calgary capture the Macgregor Kilpatrick Trophy as AHL regular-season champions, along with the Pacific Division title. He understands the expectations, the organization, and what winning looks like in Calgary.
Since then, Jones has added another layer to his résumé.
Over the past two seasons, he appeared in 54 NHL games between the Vegas Golden Knights and Minnesota Wild, gaining valuable experience at hockey’s highest level. While his NHL role was primarily as a reliable depth forward, he continued to show he can produce offensively in the American Hockey League, operating at nearly a point-per-game pace with the Iowa Wild last season.
That offensive production is certainly a bonus, but it’s not the biggest reason Calgary brought him back.
The Wranglers are expected to feature one of the youngest rosters in the AHL, with several of the Flames’ top prospects taking on larger roles. Players like Aydar Suniev, Andrew Basha, William Stromgren and others will all be navigating the daily grind of professional hockey, and that’s where Jones’ impact could be felt the most.
Entering his 10th professional season, Jones knows what it takes to stick around. He understands the habits, preparation and consistency required to earn opportunities at the NHL level. Those are lessons that can’t always be taught by coaches alone.
Wild center Ben Jones (39) celebrates scoring his first NHL goal against the New York Islanders in the first period at Grand Casino Arena. Mandatory Credit: Matt Blewett-Imagn Images
As Calgary continues building toward the future, the organization needs more than talented prospects, it needs experienced veterans who can help shape them along the way. Ben Jones may not be the headline signing of the summer, but his presence in the Wranglers’ dressing room could prove to be one of the organization’s most valuable additions for the 2026-27 season.
The Buffalo Sabres have been proactive with a number of their own players in getting them signed to long-term extensions prior to them getting close to becoming eligible for an offer sheet or unrestricted free agency. The club did it with former team captain Jack Eichel and center Dylan Cozens before they were traded, and have also done so with current Sabres Tage Thompson, Zach Benson, Josh Doan, Rasmus Dahlin, Owen Power, and Mattias Samuelsson.
On Thursday, the Pittsburgh Penguins locked up RFA forward Ville Koivunen to an eight-year, $32 million contract extension ($4 million AAV), being more proactive than Buffalo ever has, since the 23-year-old Finn has only 47 games of NHL experience and just 14 career points.
With the salary cap increasing exponentially, a $4 million cap hit is not an insignificant amount, but could be a homerun for GM Kyle Dubas if Koivunen becomes a consistent middle-six forward, but it also gives the Pens two years of evaluation time, as they can use a one-third buyout until he turns 26 years old.
The question for the 31 other clubs, including the Sabres, is whether they are willing to role the dice on any of their youngsters eligible for a new contract before the expiration of the eight-year max deal in the middle of next month. Even with eight years being the max, the only extensions that Buffalo has opted to go the full distance with is Eichel and Dahlin, and the only one coming out of their entry-level deal was Eichel.
Will the Sabres add scoring help before the start of training camp?
The youngsters eligible for an extension who have played similar NHL time coming off their ELC next summer are centers Noah Ostlund and Jiri Kulich. Winger Jack Quinn is entering the final year of a two-year bridge deal, and was connected in rumors to be part of the Connor Hellebuyck trade proposal with Winnipeg. Both Ostlund and Kulich are similar in age and lack of experience to Koivunen, which could give GM Jarmo Kekalainen the leverage to offer them a team-friendly deal.
This could be something that the Sabres are interested in doing, since both players are expected to be full-time NHLers this season with the departure of Alex Tuch. Their price tag could skyrocket with a solid regular season. If Buffalo chooses to be conservative, they can wait till next summer to get more proof of their worth, and each would be eligible to sign a seven-year deal, but they also would be eligible to sign an offer sheet with another NHL club as Leo Carlsson did with Philadelphia last month.
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In this segment, THN - Pittsburgh Penguins' editors Kelsey Surmacz and Hunter Hodies discuss the shifting landscape of roster-building in the NHL and whether or not it's a viable approach for Kyle Dubas and the Penguins to take.
Read about the Penguins' approach to roster-building and the state of their rebuild here:
Patrick Damp of Locked On Penguins joins Kelsey Surmacz and Hunter Hodies - editors of THN's Pittsburgh Penguins site - to discuss why the one-year contract extension for Evgeni Malkin makes sense for both the player and the team.
OTTAWA, CANADA - MARCH 26: Ville Koivunen #41 of the Pittsburgh Penguins skates against the Ottawa Senators on March 26, 2026 at Canadian Tire Centre in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. (Photo by André Ringuette/NHLI via Getty Images) | NHLI via Getty Images
The news reverberated out of no where when the Penguins signed Ville Koivunen for an eight-year contract and a healthy $4.0 million cap hit. No matter how you slice it, there’s been a big bet made on a player prior to proving he truly deserved it, which opens up obvious questions about the reasoning behind making such a move.
Let’s dive in more and gain a new perspective that could help understanding just what this contract really means.
Ville Koivunen has some positive signs under the hood, but an incredibly limited NHL track record. The Penguins are clearly betting on him leveling up to at least middle-six caliber over this contract. pic.twitter.com/VzUKR0g9y4
This projection, if anything, shows that it doesn’t take a lot to get a $4.0 million player in the expanding NHL salary cap world. Koivunen would only need to moderately improve his point production to start getting into justifying the money. It can be a hard pill to swallow given that he’s looked slow and not quite quick enough to be effective in the NHL so far, but there’s some signs that he might be able to get there. Whether or not he will, of course, is another debate.
The comparable players to Koivunen might be the most fascinating part to consider for just where he might end up as a finished product. There are a bunch of similar players with a wide variety of career tracks.
Some of Koivunen's comps add some weight to this — if he can follow the Jack Drury/Jesper Fast track or follow in Viktor Arvidsson's footsteps, this will age well. The best-case scenario is Troy Terry. But there's obviously a pretty wide range outcomes here. pic.twitter.com/iAkDvfhIqn
Locking down a potential Troy Terry, Jack Drury or Jesper Fast would be a big win for the Penguins, let alone if Koivunen had a Viktor Arvidsson future lined up. Up until age-22, Arvidsson was a great AHL scorer with six goals in 64 games – then he popped off for 31 in 2026-17 and has gone onto have a nice career as a mid-line support player.
The trade off, and where the risk comes in, is that this best case scenario is far from guaranteed. If Koivunen trends more to the “just a guy” or worse area of following in the footsteps of Benn Ferriero or Anders Bjork, suddenly the contract looks like a big problem for a long-lasting huge cap hit on a player that isn’t capable of making much of an impact at the NHL level. And that above grouping of player contains more misses than players deserving of a max term contract.
Then again, maybe it shouldn’t look that way to gain a true understanding of the perspective of why an unestablished player signed a massive contract.
There is quietly an off-ramp built in, via a wrinkle in the NHL’s collective bargaining agreement. Players under the age of 26 can be bought out for one-third of the contract, unlike the standard 2/3 that an older player gets in a buyout. If the Pens were to buy out Koivunen in the summer of 2028, they’d sidestep almost all of the issues created with this contract. This area probably wasn’t lost under Kyle Dubas, but surely now would have been highlighted by the Pens’ new consultant Brandon Pridham – who was involved in writing the CBA.
Something to note on this contract – if the Pens buy him out in summer 2028, they'll be on the hook for 12 seasons but the cap hit will never exceed $750K
there's essentially a "get out of jail free" baked in if he actually doesn't turn out to be a player in the next two seasons https://t.co/4i2dqxGSKw
Based on the backloaded structure for the salary components on the contract, it is prime for a buyout. Per PuckPedia, here is what it would look like if the Pens bought Koivunen out in 2028.
(Note: screen cutoff, the annual $729,167 penalty continues through the 2039-40 season)
Dead cap money in hockey is usually seen as a plague to be avoided, but the rising cap mitigates the impact in a way where perceptions will need to be updated. The NHL salary cap should be in the $125 million range in 2028-29 and figures to grow beyond that in future years. Taking a $479k penalty would be negligible at best for the Penguins. The whole thing would become more of a footnote and trivia point hanging around the margins than anything else – should things come to that.
Due to the economies of scale it can be difficult to compare the NHL to the NFL in a business sense, but carrying plenty of dead cap hits is a standard operating procedure in the NFL. The Steelers, for instance, are projected at holding $12.2 million in dead space in 2026 (though, of course, the NFL salary cap being over $300 million makes that a drop in the bucket). Such a shift in mindset could wind it’s way into normality in hockey as their caps begin to grow and allow for more tolerance of inefficient penalty cap hits.
Of course, a team isn’t going to be keen to make a bold move in signing an eight-year deal thinking they will have to buy it out in two seasons, yet practically that has to be remembered when thinking about the very essence of this contract. In essence, this could be seen as the Pens giving Koivunen $8 million for two years with a team option for five more in 2028 when they assess whether Koivunen is worth keeping or better off cutting losses for the most marginal of penalties. Such money at $8mx2 is still an excessive amount for Koivunen’s worth and value in the short-term, but one the Penguins can easily afford with all their current cap space to hedge a bet against the possibility that Koivunen justifies showing that he can be a capable NHL player from 2028-33.
Dubas even said he preferred to think of the deal as a ‘bet’, a bit of a departure from the standard signing of a young player to a max-length extension. By that outlook what is a long contract isn’t an eight-year promise to a core player but a risk the team was willing to do to see if it works.
If that happens, Pittsburgh would find themselves in a winning position to have a useful, prime-aged player locked up for what will be an exceedingly reasonable amount should Koivunen trend the way of a Jesper Fast type by 2028. It would be a home run and huge win if somehow Koivunen does even better than that and has Troy Terry or Viktor Arvidsson production at the age of 25 in a couple years. In the event it doesn’t work out and Koivunen’s trajectory falls short, the team has an option to bail and chalk the whole thing up to taking a chance that didn’t pay off with very minimal cost moving forward.
