Category: Ice Hockey

While speaking to reporters, including Matt Vensel, GM Kyle Dubas confirmed that the Pittsburgh Penguins  will not be sending qualifying offers to any of their restricted free agents (RFAs) besides Philip Tomasino, Connor Dewar, and Vasily Ponamarev (to retain his NHL signing rights). 

Thus, Pierre-Olivier Joseph, Emil Bemstrom, Taylor Gauthier, and Raivis Ansons will not be receiving qualifying offers from the Penguins before July 1 and will become unrestricted free agents. 

Joseph appeared in 47 games last season split between the St. Louis Blues and Penguins, where he posted zero goals, three assists, 36 hits, and a minus-22 rating. 

Bemstrom, 26, had one assist, 12 hits, and an even plus/minus rating in 14 games with Pittsburgh this past season. He also recorded 23 goals and 48 points in 48 games with their AHL affiliate, the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins. 

Gauthier, 24, had an 18-10-2 record, a .928 save percentage, and a 2.06 goals-against average in 30 games this past campaign with the Wheeling Nailers of the ECHL. 

Ansons, 23, had one goal, 12 penalty minutes, and a plus-3 rating in nine games this season with Wilkes-Barre/Scranton. The 6-foot-1 forward was selected by the Penguins with the 149th overall pick of the 2020 NHL Entry Draft. 

Ex-Penguins Forward Lands Extension With OilersAccording to PuckPedia, former

Photo Credit: © Charles LeClaire-Imagn Images

The Florida Panthers are working hard to keep the band together.

It certainly makes sense, considering the Panthers are back-to-back Stanley Cup Champions.

With free agency just hours away, opening at noon on July 1, the Panthers have been working to retain its two biggest free agents: forward Brad Marchand and defenseman Aaron Ekblad.

According to multiple reports, it sounds like the Panthers are half way home.

Per Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman and TSN’s Bob McKenzie, Florida and Ekblad are coming to terms on a new, long-term deal that will keep the high-end defenseman with the Panthers for the foreseeable future.

All signs point to Aaron Ekblad and FLA making progress on a long-term deal that, assuming it’s finalized, would take the veteran defenceman out of free agency.

— Bob McKenzie (@TSNBobMcKenzie) June 30, 2025

Ekblad was selected first overall by Florida at the 2014 NHL Entry Draft.

He has played every minute of his NHL career with the Panthers, helping the franchise rise from one mired in mediocrity to the powerhouse they are today.

Now the question will be how much Ekblad signs for, and if it leaves enough under the cap for the Panthers to go after Marchand as well.

Friedman is reporting that the deal comes with an AAV in the $6.1 million range.

Sounds like this is going to be around 8 x $6.1M-ish https://t.co/js2BlZ0OHh

— Elliotte Friedman (@FriedgeHNIC) June 30, 2025

That would give Florida around $5 to work with for Marchand and others.

Could a trade be in the works?

There is a lot that can happen in the coming hours.

Stay tuned.

UPDATE:

Pierre LeBrun is reporting that the deal is for eight years and carries a $6.1 million AAV.

It's quite the deal that Ekblad is taking to remain in South Florida for the rest of his career. 

Ekblad has agreed to an 8-year extension x $6.1 M AAV to stay with the Cup champs in Florida https://t.co/AO36E59GYE

— Pierre LeBrun (@PierreVLeBrun) June 30, 2025

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Photo caption: Mar 3, 2025; Sunrise, Florida, USA; Florida Panthers defenseman Aaron Ekblad (5) moves the puck against the Tampa Bay Lightning during the second period at Amerant Bank Arena. (Sam Navarro-Imagn Images)

In the wake of the Noah Dobson sign-and-trade with the Montreal Canadiens, the New York Islanders are signing defenseman Alexander Romanov to an eight-year contract extension.

The extension will pay Romanov an average annual value of $6.25 million and will run through the 2032-33 season.

With the sign and trade of the Islanders' former No. 1 defenseman, Dobson, to the Canadiens on Friday, the 25-year-old Romanov is now the team's highest-paid defenseman, just ahead of 30-year-old Ryan Pulock, who makes $6.15-million per season. The deal is also a sizeable increase on the Russian's previous deal, which paid him $2.5-million per season.

Last season, Romanov put up 16 assists and 20 points in 64 games with the Islanders, and while those numbers are on par with his other two seasons with New York, it is worth noting that Romanov was plagued with injuries during the first half of the 2024-25 season.

The young D-man has played in 354 career NHL games with the Islanders and Canadiens, and in that span, Romanov has 17 goals and 66 assists for 83 points. He’s added two points (one goal, one assist) in 13 career Stanley Cup Playoff games.

Romanov was initially drafted by Montreal in the second round with the 38th-overall pick in the 2018 NHL draft. He spent two seasons with the Canadiens before being traded to the Islanders during the 2022 off-season for a first-round pick.

In his most recent season, Romanov averaged the most playing time of his career thus far, averaging 22:18 of ice time. And with the exit of Dobson, his role may increase even more as he starts his new deal this coming season.

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Flyers development camp 2025 schedule and roster originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia

The Flyers open 2025 development camp Wednesday morning in Voorhees, New Jersey.

The team’s annual summer gathering of prospects will consist of four on-ice days. It wraps up Sunday night with a 5-on-5 scrimmage, which always attracts a crowd at Flyers Training Center.

The camp is free and open to the public. Fans can watch along the boards from certain areas or in the stands.

Porter Martone, who the Flyers just selected at sixth overall in the NHL draft, will be the headliner of camp.

“Just the whole, complete package there as far as his size, his skill, hockey sense, he has got juice, he’s always engaged around the net, he’s always stirring it up and driving people crazy,” Flyers assistant general manager Brent Flahr said last Saturday. “So he has got that edge, but more importantly, his skill set is high end when it comes to offense. His ability on the power play to break things down and create things and see things that a lot of guys can’t. … He was just too talented to pass up at that point.”

Below are the camp details.

Schedule

Roster

2025 draft class

• Flyers take Martone at No. 6 to kick off their NHL draft 2025

• Flyers trade up in first round, grab rising center at No. 12

• Flyers open second round of NHL draft 2025 with 6-foot-6 defenseman

• Flyers add a U.S. forward with some positional versatility in second round

• Busy second round continues with a teammate of a Flyers prospect

• Flyers grab another big center to wrap up four picks in second round

• Finnish winger who made impressive second-half climb goes to Flyers in fifth round

• Flyers draft 6-foot-4, righty-shot defenseman in fifth round

• Flyers close out their NHL draft 2025 class with a sixth-round center

The Vancouver Canucks' fourth signing of the day is Guillaume Brisebois, who they inked to a one-year, two-way deal. Brisebois' signing comes at the same time as fellow Abbotsford Canucks teammates Arshdeep Bains, Aatu Räty, and Max Sasson. The defenceman is one of the Canucks organization's longest-tenured players, as he has been with the team since being drafted in 2015. 

“Guillaume played a big role and was a key contributor with Abbotsford during our Calder Cup winning run,” said Canucks General Manager Patrik Allvin. “His leadership and poise on the ice helped our group a lot during the AHL playoffs, and we are happy to have him back in the fold for another season. Guillaume will add to our organizational depth on the backend.”

As mentioned, Brisebois was drafted by the Canucks 66th overall in 2015 and has remained a consistent presence on the organization's back-end in both the AHL and the NHL. Often called up as a depth defender, Brisebois has seen playing time with both Vancouver, Abbotsford, and the Canucks' former AHL affiliate, the Utica Comets. He made his NHL debut back in 2019 and has racked up a career total of 30 NHL games played. 

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Brisebois was a big part of Abbotsford's Calder Cup victory this past season, as he was a reliable presence on their blueline and tallied two goals and an assist in all 24 games played. 

Make sure you bookmark THN's Vancouver Canucks site and add us to your favourites on Google News for the latest news, exclusive interviews, breakdowns, and so much more. Also, be sure to leave a comment at the bottom of the page and engage with other passionate fans through our forum.

Why Bruins should pursue Nikolaj Ehlers on Day 1 of NHL free agency originally appeared on NBC Sports Boston

The Boston Bruins have taken care of most of their own free agents, including a flurry of new contracts over the last couple days.

The most notable deal was a six-year, $33 million contract for restricted free agent forward Morgan Geekie. Finding common ground with Geekie was important for the Bruins considering their lack of scoring depth. Geekie scored 33 goals last season — the second-most on the B’s behind David Pastrnak.

But the Bruins aren’t going to significantly improve offensively on internal development alone. Outside reinforcements are needed. The trade market is the best place for the Bruins to acquire a top-six forward. And the Bruins have several good prospects and future draft picks to dangle in potential trades.

The 2025 free agent class isn’t very strong — especially with Mitch Marner and Brad Marchand already off the board — but there are some impact forwards worth targeting, and one that fits what the Bruins need is Nikolaj Ehlers.

He was the Winnipeg Jets’ first-round pick in 2014 (No. 9 overall) and has played for them ever since.

The 29-year-old left wing has been one of the most consistent goal scorers in the league during his Jets career. He has tallied 20-plus goals in seven of the last nine seasons, and the two years he didn’t were 2020-21 (COVID-shortened year) and 2022-23 (missed a bunch of games due to injury).

Ehlers tallied 63 points (24 goals, 39 assists) in 69 games last season.

He was fantastic on the power play, too, posting six goals and 16 assists with the man advantage. He would be a nice addition to the Bruins’ power-play, which ranked 29th out of 32 teams with a 15.2 percent success rate in 2024-25.

Ehlers is more than a goal scorer. He’s a pretty good playmaker, too. He has tallied 30-plus assists five times, including each of the last two seasons. The Bruins don’t have any elite playmaking centers, so it would help to have wingers capable of consistently creating scoring chances for teammates. Ehlers fits that description.

One concern with Ehlers is durability. He missed 20 games in 2021-22, 37 games in 2022-23, none in 2023-24 and 13 games last season.

Signing him could use up most of the Bruins’ remaining salary cap space. The Bruins have about $12.7 million in cap space right now, per PuckPedia, and The Athletic projects Ehlers could get a contract in the range of six years and $8.1 million per season.

Ehlers is a legitimate top-six forward in the prime of his career. If the Bruins want to get back in the playoff mix as soon as next season, it would make sense to pursue Ehlers when the free agent market opens Tuesday at noon ET.

The Vancouver Canucks have re-signed center Aatu Räty to a two-year contract extension. The deal will carry an AAV of $775,000 and will keep the 22-year-old in Vancouver until the end of the 2026-27 season. Räty was scheduled to become a restricted free agent after wrapping up his entry-level contract. 

In a statement, GM Patrik Allvin wrote, "Aatu had a strong year in Abbotsford and also showed some promise when being called up to the NHL. It was another good step in his development as he continues to learn and grow as a pro. We expect him to have a good summer and come to training camp in September ready to compete for a job in Vancouver."

Räty set a new career high this season with 33 games played at the NHL level. The left-shot center scored seven goals while recording 11 points. Räty was also strong in the faceoff dot, winning 57.7% of his draws. 

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As for his time in the AHL, Räty played 43 regular season games with the Abbotsford Canucks recording 40 points. He also played six games in the post-season before suffering an injury. Räty will be competing for a full-time spot on the NHL roster and is a front-runner for a spot in the bottom six. 

Make sure you bookmark THN's Vancouver Canucks site and add us to your favourites on Google News for the latest news, exclusive interviews, breakdowns, and so much more. Also, be sure to leave a comment at the bottom of the page and engage with other passionate fans through our forum.

The Vancouver Canucks have re-signed BC local Arshdeep Bains to a two-year contract that will keep him within the organization until the end of the 2026-27 season. According to PuckPedia, both years of the deal will pay $775,000. 

“Arshdeep had another solid season in Abbotsford as he continues to develop and mature,” said Canucks General Manager Patrik Allvin in a statement. “His game found another gear late in the AHL playoffs when he stepped up and helped lead the way offensively with several big goals. Arsh is now familiar with our system and style of play, and we expect him to push hard for a spot in September.”

Bains was first acquired by the Canucks back in 2022 after Vancouver signed him to a three-year entry-level contract. He played 13 games with Vancouver in the 2024-25 season and made his NHL debut the season prior against the Colorado Avalanche. He scored his first NHL goal against the Pittsburgh Penguins on October 26, 2024. 

Throughout this season, Bains has made a mark as one of the Abbotsford Canucks' most consistent forwards both offensively and defensively. He led Abbotsford in points during the 2024-25 regular season, scoring 11 goals and 32 assists in 50 games played. In the team's Calder Cup campaign, he finished second in scoring with seven goals and 17 assists in 24 games. All seven of his postseason tallies came within the final eight games of the playoffs. 

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Bains is not the only member of the Calder Cup-winning Abbotsford team to receive a new deal, as Max Sasson, Guillaume Brisebois, and Aatu Räty also agreed on extensions today. 

Make sure you bookmark THN's Vancouver Canucks site and add us to your favourites on Google News for the latest news, exclusive interviews, breakdowns, and so much more. Also, be sure to leave a comment at the bottom of the page and engage with other passionate fans through our forum.

The Toronto Maple Leafs have acquired Matias Maccelli from the Utah Mammoth in exchange for a conditional third-round draft pick in 2027, which will convert to a second-round draft pick in 2029 if Maccelli record at least 51 points in the 2025-26 NHL season.

The 5-foot-11 winger had eight goals and 10 assists in 55 games last season. He’s a play-maker who broke out into the NHL in 2022-23 when he led all rookies in assists. He also received Calder Trophy consideration and ultimately landed on the NHL’s all-rookie team that same season.

In acquiring Maccelli, the Leafs are betting that they are buying low on a season that saw the Finnish player have a dip in production. Some of that was attributed to dips in production from his linemates. If paired with elite talent in Toronto, there is certainly potential for the player to see a rebound next year. A deeper dive into the analytics of his season showed a player where contributed 1.78 shot assists above average per 60 while leading the NHL in generating chances off the rush. 

Other critics of Maccelli's style focus on his play away from his puck, which could use some improvement. It's believed the lack of hard-nosed physical play led to him falling out of Utah's top-six forward group and that will be something he will need to get better at under Craig Berube, who demands a hard-nosed, heavy north-south game.  But with a skilled player like Mitch Marner seemingly on his way out of Toronto, a play-making winger was needed. He isn't Marner, but there was a good reason for Toronto to give this a shot, given the low cost.

The 24-year-old Maccelli carries a salary cap hit of $3,425,000 for next season. After that, the player will be a restricted free agent.

Macccell first exhibited his skillset when he moved to the United States to play in the USHL beginning in 2017. In his second season, he scored 31 goals and 41 assists in 62 games. The Arizona Coyotes selected him in the fourth round (98th overall) in the 2019 NHL Draft.

In his first season in professional hockey, he scored 13 goals and 27 assists in 43 games with Ilves Tampere, winning the Liiga rookie of the year award. The Coyotes subsequently signed him to a three-year entry-level contract at the end of that season 2019-20 season.

Leafs salary cap situation following trade

After acquiring Maccelli, the Leafs have $10,145,581 in salary cap space, according to PuckPedia.com as they get set to enter the feee agency period, which opens at noon E.T. on July 1.

(Headline Photo Credit: Rob Gray-Imagn Images)

Report: Maple Leafs Are Frontrunners For Brad Marchand If He Hits Open Market, Could Still Re-Sign With PanthersIf Brad Marchand hits the open market on Tuesday, the Toronto Maple Leafs will reportedly be among several teams interested in the forward's services. And likely one of the frontrunners to land him.

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The Vegas Golden Knights have traded defenseman Nicolas Hague and a conditional third-round pick in the 2027 NHL Entry Draft to the Nashville Predators in exchange for Jeremy Lauzon and Colton Sissons. 

🔄 The Vegas Golden Knights have acquired Jeremy Lauzon and Colton Sissons from the Nashville Predators in exchange for Nicolas Hague and a 2027 third-round pick. #VegasBornpic.twitter.com/sxYZoEnC3Y

— Vegas Golden Knights (@GoldenKnights) June 30, 2025

Lauzon, 28, is a seven-year NHL defenseman who has played for the Nashville Predators, Seattle Kraken, and Boston Bruins. He has appeared in 316 NHL games, including 187 with the Predators, recording 28 points (10 goals, 18 assists) over four seasons. Lauzon set career highs during the 2023–24 season with six goals, 14 points, and 383 hits in 79 games. He has also made four appearances in the Stanley Cup Playoffs, twice with the Bruins and twice with the Predators, skating in a total of 22 postseason games.

Sissons, 31, is a right-shot forward who’s appeared in 690 games with Nashville owning 221 points (95 Goals, 126 Assists) and holds a plus-18 rating over 11 seasons. Known for his physical style of play, Sissons leads all Nashville Predators skaters in hits since the 2015–16 campaign, accumulating 1,131, including a career-high 188 in the 2021–22 season. In the 2023–24 regular season, he set personal bests with 15 goals and 30 total points across 72 games. 

Sissons has appeared in 71 playoff games, tallying 10 goals and 15 assists for 25 points. He played in all 22 games during Nashville’s memorable run to the 2017 Stanley Cup Final, contributing 12 points (6 Goals, 6 Assists) and finishing with a plus-7 rating. One of his most iconic performances came in Game 6 of the Western Conference Final that year, when he recorded a hat trick to help the Predators clinch their first-ever trip to the championship round. Nashville will retain 50% of Sissons’ salary as part of the trade. 

One of our first draft picks and a Stanley Cup Champion.

Thank you for everything & best of luck, Haguer! 🦒#VegasBornpic.twitter.com/y35TXHR72C

— Vegas Golden Knights (@GoldenKnights) June 30, 2025

Hague has signed a four-year, $22 million contract with the Predators. 

PHOTO COURTESY: Golden Knights

The Buffalo Sabres made a pair of trades before and during the 2025 NHL Draft in Los Angeles which were as much about changing the makeup of the roster as they were about trimming the budget of the club in advance of the beginning of free agency on July 1. 

The JJ Peterka trade brought back two players in defenseman Michael Kesselring and forward Josh Doan under contract for 2025-26. Kesselring will make $1.4 million and is an arbitration-eligible restricted free agent next summer, so the Sabres have control over him for two seasons. Doan is on the final year of his entry-level contract, and after this season Buffalo has four years of control over him before he becomes an unrestricted free agent. 

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Peterka obviously wanted out of Buffalo, but it is not clear if it was an issue with the organization being a perennial non-playoff club, if it was that the Sabres would not give him a significant raise and a long-term contract or all of the above. Clearly, the Sabres were not willing to pay a 23-year-old who at this point was not a complete two-way player the five-year, $38.5 million deal that Utah signed him to, and they did not want draft picks had Peterka gone the way of an offer sheet.

The trade sending a 2025 second round pick and defenseman Connor Clifton to Pittsburgh for defenseman Conor Timmins and minor leaguer Isaac Beliveau was an obvious salary dump. GM Kevyn Adams indicated that it was likely that Clifton would not be back after the final year of his three-year, $10 million deal, and that the Sabres had coveted Timmins for awhile, but not mentioned was the fact that they gave up a high draft pick to save likely $2 million in salary if Timmins takes his qualifying offer. 

After re-signing winger Jack Quinn to a two-year, $6.75 million contract extension, the Sabres now have just under $21 million going into free agency on Tuesday, but it remains a question whether this summer will be different than other recent ones where Adams is on a budget and leaves significant cap space unspent.       

Follow Michael on X, Instagram, and Bluesky @MikeInBuffalo

The Toronto Maple Leafs have announced their roster for this year's development camp.

All six of Toronto's selections from the 2025 NHL Draft (No. 64, Tinus Luc Koblar; No. 86, Tyler Hopkins; No. 137, William Belle; No. 153, Harry Nansi; No. 185, Rylan Fellinger; No. 217, Matthew Hlacar) will be in attendance for the three-day camp.

Seventeen of Toronto's draft picks, including the 2025 selections, and picks from previous drafts will be present, highlighted by Easton Cowan and Ben Danford. The other names on the list are 2024 picks, Miroslav Holinka, Victor Johansson, Matthew Lahey, Nathan Mayes, Sam McCue, Alex Plesovskikh; 2023 picks, Noah Chadwick, Hudson Malinoski; and 2022 third-round pick Nick Moldenhauer.

The Maple Leafs will also have four NHL-signed players at the camp: Luke Haymes, John Prokop, Blake Smith, and Borya Valis. All four players played at least one AHL game with the Toronto Marlies after signing in the spring.

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Four players signed to AHL contracts, including Ryan Kirwan, Rhett Parsons, Chas Sharpe, and Landon Sim will attend the camp. Aside from Sim, who won the Memorial Cup with Cowan and the London Knights, all three players have appeared in a professional game.

A total of 48 players (29 forwards, 15 defensemen, and four goaltenders) are attending development camp this year. All four goaltenders are free-agent invites; none of Toronto's drafted goaltenders will be at the camp.

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The three-day camp will feature approximately 10 hours of on-ice work for the prospects from Thursday, July 3, to Saturday, July 5. Maple Leafs assistant general manager, player development, Hayley Wickenheiser, will speak at the beginning and end of the camp.

(Top photo of Cowan: John E. Sokolowski / Imagn Images)

Brad Marchand staying with Panthers on six-year contract: Report originally appeared on NBC Sports Boston

Brad Marchand isn’t just staying with the Florida Panthers, he is committing to the two-time defending Stanley Cup champs for six more years.

Yes, you read that right.

The 37-year-old veteran is “closing in on” a six-year contract worth just under $32 million with the Panthers, Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reported Monday. The salary cap hit will be less than $5.5 million, which is pretty good value for Florida.

If Marchand plays out this entire contract, he’ll be 43 years old when it expires.

Marchand spent 15-plus seasons with the Boston Bruins before they dealt him to the Panthers at the trade deadline in March.

He made a seamless transition to the Panthers lineup and was arguably their best player in the 2025 Stanley Cup Playoffs. He tallied 20 points (10 goals, 10 assists) in 23 postseason games, including six goals in the Stanley Cup Final against the Edmonton Oilers. The Panthers won the series in six games to secure back-to-back championships.

The Panthers have done a masterful job re-signing their own free agents this offseason. In addition to Marchand, Florida has kept top-six center Sam Bennett (eight years, $64 million) and star defenseman Aaron Ekblad (eight years, $48.8 million).

The Bruins, Toronto Maple Leafs and Utah Mammoth reportedly were going to have interest in Marchand if he hit the free agent market Tuesday, but now those teams will have to pursue other options.

The Detroit Red Wings traded right winger Vladimir Tarasenko to the Minnesota Wild in exchange for future considerations.

Tarasenko has one season left on a two-year contract with a $4.75-million cap hit. He heads to the Wild, his sixth NHL team since the start of 2022.

The 33-year-old spent the first 10 seasons of his NHL career with the St. Louis Blues, which selected him 16th overall in the 2010 NHL draft. During that time, he won the Stanley Cup in 2019.

In his 11th season, the Blues traded him to the New York Rangers in January 2023. He played the rest of the season for the Blueshirts before signing a one-year contract with the Ottawa Senators in free agency.

After 57 games with the Senators, which were on their way to missing the playoffs, they traded Tarasenko to the Florida Panthers at the NHL trade deadline in 2023-24. Tarasenko had 14 points in 19 games with the Panthers before putting up five goals and nine points in 24 games en route to the Panthers' first-ever Stanley Cup championship.

Tarasenko signed with the Red Wings as a UFA in 2024. This past season, he recorded 11 goals and 33 points in 80 games, both career lows in seasons when he played at least 40 games. His average ice time of 14:47 was the lowest since his rookie campaign in 2012-13.

Now, the Red Wings made a cap dump by trading him to Minnesota. They now have nearly $23.2 million in projected cap space, according to PuckPedia. They have five pending UFAs, including Patrick Kane, and three pending RFAs, including Jonatan Berggren.

As for the Wild, they get a sniper who can play up and down the lineup and potentially bounce back from the relatively low production in 2024-25. His shooting percentage this past season was 8.3 percent, the second-lowest of his career, in which he usually scores on between 10 percent and 15 percent of his shots.

Right winger Gustav Nyquist is among Minnesota's pending UFAs, so if he's out, Tarasenko fits right in for improved depth and secondary scoring.

The Wild still have just under $13 million in projected cap space, with three pending depth UFAs and pending RFA Marco Rossi, who's been a subject of trade speculation.

Tarasenko, a 6-foot-1, 219-pound NHL veteran from Yaroslavl, Russia, has 304 goals and 358 assists for 662 points in 831 career regular-season games. He also has 49 goals and 73 points in 121 post-season contests. He was voted to the NHL's second all-star team in 2014-15 and 2015-16, and he's played in four NHL All-Star Games.

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