Latest news with #UFA
New York Times
2 days ago
- Business
- New York Times
Maple Leafs GM Brad Treliving on the Mitch Marner contract ‘process,' team's DNA
TORONTO — In an end-of-season news conference Thursday, Toronto Maple Leafs GM Brad Treliving acknowledged that the team failed to reach its goals and that 'there's some DNA that has to change.' Treliving said the team is still determining its path as it relates to Mitch Marner — potentially the most highly touted unrestricted free agent the NHL has seen in years. Treliving declined to comment on whether the team would offer a contract to Marner or John Tavares, who is also eligible to become a UFA on July 1. Advertisement 'I think Mitch is a tremendous player. I think he's a star. We're in that process right now,' Treliving said of talks with the Leafs' superstar winger and leading scorer in 2024-25. 'Mitch and I had a discussion. It's emotional right now,' he said, later clarifying that exit meetings after a playoff loss are emotional for all involved and that his comments were not specific to Marner. 'You've got to get composed, you've got to think clearly and then start going through that process,' he said. 'I'm going to be in touch with Mitch's representative and determine what's best,' Treliving said. 'Mitch has a say in this as well.' Speaking about his future at locker cleanout day earlier this month, Marner spoke about the Leafs, and his nine years playing at home in Toronto, in the past tense. 'I've always loved my time here. I've loved being here,' he said. At no point did he express his desire to stay. Speaking more broadly about the roster on Thursday, Treliving said he believed that change would be necessary. 'When you keep getting to the same result, there's some DNA that has to change,' he said. Treliving's comments on Marner were highly anticipated. Head coach Craig Berube and 10 Leafs players conducted their year-end media availabilities almost immediately in the wake of their second-round exit. MLSE President and CEO Keith Pelley then spoke five days after the Leafs' final game to address former Leafs president Brendan Shanahan's departure from the organization. Treliving was in Calgary to attend high daughter's graduation. Marner declined to discuss an extension with the Leafs this past season. That led to an attempt by Treliving's front office to facilitate a trade at the March 7 deadline that would have sent Marner to Carolina in exchange for Mikko Rantanen. Marner declined to waive his no-movement clause and the trade was scuttled. Advertisement Treliving stepped in front of the microphones in an abrupt media availability on March 9. 'We want Mitch here for a long time,' Treliving said at the time. 'I'm here to just play hockey,' Marner said in March when asked about extension talks. 'It's a business out there. I know what's going on. I'm just here to play hockey. I'm here to enjoy everything and go through the ups and downs with these guys, and just take it day by day and try to help us win games.' Marner led the Leafs with a career-high 102 points during the regular season. He joined Auston Matthews, Doug Gilmour, and Darryl Sittler as only the fourth player in franchise history to register 100 points in a season. Marner went on to post 13 points in 13 playoff games this past spring, but scored only two goals and failed to produce in the latter part of the second round against Florida. He had only one point, an assist, in the final four games, three of them losses for the Leafs. Marner's Leafs tenure, if this is indeed the end, will be defined in part by the postseason disappointments, both for the team and for Marner personally. The Leafs have won only two rounds during his time in Toronto and Marner produced 63 points in 70 playoff games. Marner was consistently terrific in the regular season. He was named the top right winger in the NHL at the end of the 2020-21 and 2021-22 seasons and was a Selke Trophy finalist in 2022-23. He is among the most talented players in Leafs history, with the fifth-most points (741) and the fourth-most assists (520).
New York Times
2 days ago
- Business
- New York Times
What would it take to put the Winnipeg Jets over the top? 5 potential paths
The Winnipeg Jets' season was spectacular but it ended in Round 2. The Jets won the Presidents' Trophy and have finalists for the top goaltender, most valuable player, coach of the year and GM of the year awards. They are a good hockey team and should remain one, with or without Nikolaj Ehlers, but there is also an enormous question facing them in the years ahead. Advertisement How do the Winnipeg Jets get over the top? What can they realistically do to augment the group that beat the St. Louis Blues in seven games and then lost to the Dallas Stars in six? There's no Connor McDavid, Connor Bedard or Macklin Celebrini on the way. The Jets are too good to pick No. 1 and are on track to avoid the top 10 for years to come. Top UFA targets like Mitch Marner, Sam Bennett, John Tavares and Aaron Ekblad are unlikely acquisitions, too; even with stable ownership, cap space to burn and a Stanley Cup-contending roster, the Jets have never been a top UFA destination. It's remarkable, then, that the Jets finished No. 1 in the regular season standings at all. They're Cup contenders, pending Ehlers' future (or their attempt at his replacement) and they've done it through a combination of savvy trades and by developing their own players — despite trading away a ton of draft capital in the name of winning. In this way, the Jets' poor UFA track record hurts them twice — by keeping top end talent out of Winnipeg on July 1 and by incentivizing trading first-round picks in search of No. 2 centres. That said, it also helps them by keeping Winnipeg away from albatross UFA contracts. But this isn't a case of a team running roughshod over the NHL, making it to the Stanley Cup Final and getting beaten by a fluke in Game 7 OT. The Jets are doing their best to maximize every avenue of talent acquisition and haven't made it as far as the third round since the Vegas Golden Knights beat them in 2018. That team believed it had the cavalry coming in the form of top young players maturing into bigger roles. This one is led by Connor Hellebuyck, Mark Scheifele and Josh Morrissey — all on the wrong side of 30. The window to win depends on that trio maintaining elite performance before inevitable age-related decline. Elias Salomonsson, Brayden Yager and Brad Lambert are good prospects but don't match the superstar potential of 2011-2016 first-round picks Patrik Laine, Kyle Connor, Ehlers, Morrissey, Jacob Trouba and Scheifele. Advertisement So how do the Jets maximize this window? What can they do to take the next step in the playoffs before it's too late? These are bigger questions than typically get asked of first-place teams, but the urgency is real. The Jets' best players are still great but on the downswing of their aging curves. The next wave — Dylan Samberg, Gabriel Vilardi and Cole Perfetti — is entering its prime. What could come next that would lead Winnipeg to the Stanley Cup? This section is up there with 'draft Connor McDavid' as far as helpfulness goes, but there is a common thread that connects most of Winnipeg's recent trade targets. Whether it's Brandon Tanev, Luke Schenn, Alex Iafallo, Vladislav Namestnikov or Nino Niederreiter, the Jets have clearly tried to supplement their stars with players who are a pain to play against. Ideally, Winnipeg's star players would be a pain to play against in their own right. It's just not realistic to expect Connor, Scheifele and Vilardi to play on the edge like Matthew Tkachuk, Sam Bennett or Brad Marchand do. The Panthers didn't draft any of those players, nor did they draft Sam Reinhart, but they've been aggressive on the trade front, putting themselves first in line whenever a highly talented, playoff-ready curmudgeon becomes available. It's not Niederreiter or Namestnikov's fault they're not Tkachuk, but there's clearly a difference in outcomes when the truculence comes attached to a point-per-game star player. Winnipeg's solution may be to identify targets who are closer to the middle class — more impactful than Tanev or Namestnikov, more likely to be available than Tkachuk. Andrew Mangiapane is a pending UFA, for example. Tanner Jeannot was once thought to have offence in his game. As rare as it may be for a Tkachuk, Marchand or Tom Wilson-type player to become available, they could certainly add a valuable dynamic to the Jets. Dustin Byfuglien was perhaps even more rare as a defenceman than Matthew Tkachuk is as a forward (and didn't have a heavy-hitting little brother in the league). He's not fair to invoke as a trade target or UFA signing, but useful to us as a symbol. Wouldn't Josh Morrissey have done better than getting outscored 6-2 if he had a massive, mobile, puck-moving force to help him clear the crease and get pucks up ice against St. Louis and Dallas? Advertisement That's the score Winnipeg picked up in the playoffs with the Morrissey/Dylan DeMelo pairing on the ice at five-on-five — a huge disappointment after they'd won their regular season minutes 51-36 while controlling 55 percent of expected goals (via Evolving Hockey). Watching them get pounded on each puck retrieval vs. St. Louis — and then watching Morrissey get hurt, twice — should have been a call to arms for the Jets. They've heavily invested in Morrissey, DeMelo and Neal Pionk and are about to heavily invest in Dylan Samberg. This makes for a smart, talented top four defence corps, but one that's more likely to take punishment than to dole it out. Add that disadvantage to Hellebuyck's woes fighting through traffic (and acknowledge that bigger D-men like Luke Schenn and Logan Stanley didn't help on this front) and the symbol of Byfuglien lives on. Aaron Ekblad isn't quite it, nor is Ekblad a realistic UFA target. Vladislav Gavrikov plays an effective, physical style, but is well-liked in Los Angeles. It's easy to understand why past versions of the Jets were so interested in Jamie Oleksiak, although he's not a top-four solution anymore. Adam Lowry had hip surgery on Tuesday. His recovery is expected to take five to six months, taking until the end of October or November. The Jets needed help at centre before Lowry's surgery and tried to acquire Brock Nelson at the trade deadline. As I wrote in March, the Jets believed they had a deal done for Nelson at that time. There are some wonderful UFAs available, Nelson included, but free agency isn't typically kind to the Jets. They're not going to sign Sam Bennett or John Tavares this offseason, although players of that caliber would clearly go a long way toward putting Winnipeg over the top. Could the Jets trade for a centre instead of signing one? Andrew 'Hustler' Paterson put the idea to me on this week's Winnipeg Sports Talk and it's an easy idea to run with. Winnipeg sent three first-round picks away from 2018 to 2024 for pending UFA centres (Paul Stastny, Kevin Hayes, and Sean Monahan) who signed elsewhere on July 1. It seems as though Nelson may have signed elsewhere even if the Jets had acquired him at this deadline, too. Would it not make sense to trade for a younger centre with years of team control instead of waiting until the trade deadline to go after pending free agents? Let's say the Minnesota Wild put 60-point RFA centre Marco Rossi on the market — a distinct possibility, given the 23-year-old's unhappiness with his usage. It's unlikely that a 5-foot-9, 182-pound centre is the solution to Winnipeg's playoff dreams but Rossi's skill is undeniable and he's not UFA eligible until 2029. Advertisement The example may not be ideal but the concept is strong. The Jets are going to keep throwing assets at their second-line centre hole until the position is filled. A younger option with team control would give Winnipeg long-term stability, while freeing up deadline day assets in the pursuit of other upgrades. Cole Perfetti is alone among current Jets with NHL experience, draft pedigree and enough youth to project a continued upswing. Dylan Samberg and Gabriel Vilardi have established themselves, but they'll each be 26 years old by the start of next season. Logan Stanley just turned 27; the Zdeno Chara dreams are history now. In 2018, the Jets' great hope was that Laine, Ehlers, Connor, Morrissey and Trouba would develop into great players while Blake Wheeler, Scheifele and Byfuglien were still at their peak. It seemed realistic, based on the sheer volume of high draft picks and their early returns: the 2017-18 Jets got more than 100 goals from players who were 21 years old or younger when the season began. Perfetti may strike closer to a point per game — especially if he replaces Nikolaj Ehlers on the first-unit power play — but there's only one of him. Lambert scored seven goals and 35 points in the AHL this year. Yager has yet to play at the AHL or NHL level, while Colby Barlow's playoffs offer long-term hope after a pedestrian 20-year-old season in the OHL. This leaves Winnipeg with two shots at stunning star turns: Perfetti, 23, and Elias Salomonsson, who turns 21 in August. Salomonsson is Samberg-esque in his defensive intelligence, while skating better and achieving elite AHL results at a younger age than Samberg did. That doesn't mean he's a surefire NHL player this season — there isn't a lot of room at right defence — but it bodes well long-term. The Jets' defence corps is all right if Salomonsson peaks early enough and at a high enough level while Morrissey and Samberg are still excelling in their roles. Perfetti took an exciting step forward this season. The Jets would do well to look at a long-term extension this summer before power-play opportunity raises his price for a second time. Ideally Winnipeg would have two or three players in his position — or a lottery pick, which isn't in the cards — or even more promising signs from Lambert, Barlow and Yager relative to their age. This is the easy way out of the thought exercise. One way for Winnipeg to make it to the third and fourth rounds of the playoffs is for Hellebuyck to shake off his recent playoff misery. Hellebuyck could carry the Jets that far himself with a string of performances like Game 2 or Game 5 against Dallas — or, more spectacularly, like Round 1 against the Edmonton Oilers in 2021. Advertisement To watch Hellebuyck get shelled against St. Louis and then start to question himself — just as he did against Colorado last season — is to think Winnipeg needs to do a better job of insulating him from crease-crashing playoff brutality. Hellebuyck has been the best regular-season goalie of the past several years because of his reads and his positioning — but through processing power, not acrobatics. We've seen multiple teams bully the Jets in the slot now, taking Hellebuyck's sightlines away from him such that he's left to scrap for positioning. He's gotten off his game, confessing last year that he tried to put too much on his own shoulders and this year that he started to doubt his own process as the goals piled up. It's a tempting, easy out as far as projecting Winnipeg's success goes. Snap your fingers, give Hellebuyck league-average results, and Winnipeg is dealing with Edmonton in Round 3 right now instead of sorting out its offseason. And it's entirely possible that he gets hot at the right time, or finds a better way to manage net-front chaos against his Central Division rivals. I think the Jets' best play at helping him do that comes in the form of that mythical Byfuglien figure discussed above. In a playoffs where Winnipeg lapped the field in terms of giving up goals on screens, part of the solution must come from Hellebuyck and part of it must come from what happens in front of him.
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
NHL Rumor Roundup: Sam Bennett's Stock Rises
Florida Panthers center Sam Bennett is completing a four-year, $17.7-million contract. Eligible for UFA status on July 1, the 28-year-old couldn't have picked a better time for a career season. Bennett is coming off a career-best 51-point regular season. The versatile, agitating two-way center is also burnishing his reputation as a clutch post-season performer. He's tied with Mikko Rantanen for the lead among playoff goal-scorers with nine, putting himself among the favorites for the Conn Smythe Trophy. Advertisement Panthers management reportedly reopened contract extension talks with Bennett in March. He could be receptive to staying put, but could seek to double his current $4.425 million average annual value on his next contract. That could make him too expensive for the Panthers to retain. Sam Bennett (Sam Navarro-Imagn Images) Bennett would be the best center available if he tests the UFA market, where several clubs will bid for his services. The Toronto Maple Leafs might be among his suitors. Michael Traikos recently observed that the Leafs will have over $22 million in cap space if they don't re-sign pending UFA forwards Mitch Marner and John Tavares. He recommends they use that cap space to pursue Bennett if he goes to market on July 1, a sentiment shared by Steve Simmons of the Toronto Sun. Advertisement Jeremy Rutherford of The Athletic believes Bennett would be the best UFA option for the St. Louis Blues to address their need for a second-line center. However, the cap-strapped Blues might have to free up some salary, perhaps by placing defenseman Torey Krug on LTIR if his playing days are over. Rutherford's colleague Kevin Kurz suggested Bennett would make a good free-agent target for the rebuilding Philadelphia Flyers. Bolstering their depth at center is a priority this summer, which could lead them to free agency if suitable options aren't available in the trade market. With $26.7 million in projected cap room for 2025-26, they can afford Bennett if he's available on July 1. Bennett could also be on the Montreal Canadiens' radar. Pat Hickey of the Montreal Gazette recently included the Panthers' star among several UFA options to address the Canadiens' need for a second-line center. Get the latest news and trending stories by following The Hockey News on Google News and by subscribing to The Hockey News newsletter here. And share your thoughts by commenting below the article on
Miami Herald
4 days ago
- Sport
- Miami Herald
NHL Rumor Roundup: The Latest On The Kings, Canadiens And Devils
Rob Blake stepped down as GM of the Los Angeles Kings on May 5. Eleven days later, they hired former Detroit Red Wings and Edmonton Oilers GM Ken Holland as Blake's replacement. On May 22, Pierre LeBrun of The Athletic reported Holland intends to be aggressive in this summer's trade and free-agent markets. He believes the new Kings GM could go 'big-game hunting' to upgrade their roster following four straight first-round playoff exits to the Oilers. The Kings have $21.7 million of projected cap room and 21 active roster players under contract for next season. LeBrun noted they have the cap space to make a big splash in the free-agent pool. LeBrun wouldn't be surprised if Holland gets into the bidding for Mitch Marner if the Toronto Maple Leafs right winger tests the UFA market on July 1. He could pursue a more affordable option like Nikolaj Ehlers of the Winnipeg Jets or Brock Boeser of the Vancouver Canucks. The Hockey News' Jim Parsons listed Boeser and Marner as targets as well as the Leafs' John Tavares, Oilers' Connor Brown and the Florida Panthers' Brad Marchand and Sam Bennett, but he noted there will be a lot of competition for the high-end free agents. Turning to the Montreal Canadiens, they're expected to pursue a second-line center via trade or free agency following the Stanley Cup playoffs. TVA Sports' Tony Marinaro and Jean-Charles Lajoie recently looked at possible UFA options for the Canadiens. They felt Mikael Granlund of the Dallas Stars might be a good fit. The 5-foot-10, 185-pound Granlund lacks the size that the Canadiens could seek in a second-line center, However, Marinaro and Lajoie believe he'd be a decent short-term addition. Lajoie recommended signing the 33-year-old Granlund even if the Habs find someone else to center their second line, citing his ability to step up into that role if injuries strike. Granlund is completing a four-year contract with an average annual value of $5 million. He's coming off back-to-back seasons of 60-or-more points following a disappointing 2022-23 campaign with the Nashville Predators and Pittsburgh Penguins. In New Jersey, the Devils could move one or two players this summer to free up salary-cap space to address other roster needs. James Nichols of New Jersey Hockey Now indicated the no-trade protection for 34-year-old forwards Ondrej Palat and Erik Haula will change on July 1. Palat's drops from a full no-movement clause to a 10-team no-trade list, while Haula's goes from a full no-trade to a six-team no-trade list. Haula might be the easiest to move because he has a year left on his contract with an average annual value of $3.125 million. Palat has two years left at $6 million annually. Nichols noted the Devils need more scoring, suggesting Drake Batherson of the Ottawa Senators, Alex Tuch of the Buffalo Sabres and Pavel Dorofeyev of the Vegas Golden Knights as trade targets. However, the Senators are unlikely to move Batherson and his team-friendly contract, the Sabres are reportedly keen to sign Tuch to an extension, while the Golden Knights probably prefer to retain the 24-year-old Dorofeyev, who tallied 35 goals this season. Get thelatest news and trending stories by following The Hockey News on Google News and bysubscribing to The Hockey News newsletter here. And share your thoughts by commenting belowthe article on Copyright 2025 The Hockey News, Roustan Media Ltd.
Edmonton Journal
23-05-2025
- Sport
- Edmonton Journal
HAVE YOUR SAY: Senators fans bullish on team's future in reader poll results
Article content The cat already is out of the bag with Ottawa's first-round draft pick, as Staios decided not to forfeit his 2025 selection, as expected. That aligns with the poll results, which seem to favour the wait-and-see approach that owner Michael Andlauer has advocated. In terms of changes to be made, fans largely concurred on who they didn't want back. Out of time and favour among the Senators faithful is backup goaltender Anton Forsberg, whose UFA status could see him replaced by 22-year-old Leevi Merilainen. Fans are high on the Finnish netminder, who posted a sparkling .925 save percentage and 1.99 goals-against average over 12 NHL starts. Fans also liked the Dylan Cozens trade, although he was the top player respondents think needs to be better next season. Dennis Gilbert — the other piece of the deal — along with Travis Hamonic, are popular defenders to let go of this summer in free agency. Both are unrestricted and likely won't be kept. At forward, respondents felt generally favourable towards re-signing Adam Gaudette after his breakout goal-scoring performance this season, while Nick Cousins and especially Matthew Highmore were seen as more dispensable. Take a look at the results below:
