Good morning Hockey fans,
Hope all is well with you. We are back with the regular season beginning tonight, and as teams begin another season to compete for the Stanley Cup, we have some big news from around the league.
- The Winnipeg Jets have signed their two big guns: Mark Scheifele and Connor Hellybuyck to identical seven-year contracts worth $59.5 million (with an AAV of $8.5 million). Hellebuyck, 30, is coming off an excellent season where he was nominated for the Vezina after having a 2.49 GAA and a .920 save percentage (including 4 shutouts), while Scheifele, had 42 goals and 26 assists in 81 games. He has been with the team his whole career and has put up 272 goals and 645 points in 723 games. There was much speculation this off-season to see if both guys would be traded or moved given how poorly they ended the season and with former captain Blake Wheeler was bought out. But it looks like Kevin Cheveldayoff was able to secure both guys and will try to keep the team competitive. This will be a fascinating year to watch the Winnipeg Jets to see how they fare.
- In other NHL news, it has been reported by Outsports, that the NHL has prohibited teams from using Pride Tape for the upcoming 2023-24 season. They sent a memo out to all 32 teams clarifying which “special initiatives” they could participate in, and the league stated that teams could celebrate whichever initiatives they’d like, as long as it adhered to the dress code. This is going to be divisive and continue to divide fans and media alike and we will see how teams and specifically players or even the NHLPA will respond.
- The Buffalo Sabres have also signed their young defenseman Rasmus Dahlin to an 8-year, $88-million contract (with an AAV of $11 million) and begins in the 2024-25 season. Dahlin, 23, who was the first-overall pick of the 2018 NHL Draft, had a career year last year, playing 78 games and putting up 15 goals and 58 assists. It will also make him the second highest paid defenceman (tied with Drew Doughty). They also still have to work on resigning Owen Powers, but this is a good piece of business by Kevyn Adams, as Buffalo tries to end their long playoff drought this upcoming season.
- It sounds like Jake Muzzin of the Toronto Maple Leafs is going to retire and join the team as a Pro Scout. Muzzin, 34, has been dealing with lots of injury for a while, but he did play in 683 games, and put up 69 goals and 225 assists for a total of 294 points. He also won the cup in 2014 with the L.A Kings. It was also announced that goaltender Matt Murray will go on LTIR after undergoing bilateral hip injury and will take at least 8 months to recover. This team will be fascinating to watch as Toronto tries to go deep this year and let some new guys come in and make an impact (Max Domi, John Klingberg, and Tyler Bertuzzi).
- Toronto also made a trade with the Vancouver Canucks for Sam Lafferty for a 2024 5th round pick, to get under the cap. Lafferty, 28, split his 2022-23 season with the Chicago Blackhawks and Toronto Maple Leafs and Vancouver is looking to bolster their bottom 6.
- The Minnesota Wild also signed Ryan Hartman to a 3-year, $12 million contract extension (with an AAV of $4,000,000). Hartman, 29, put up 15 goals and 22 assists last season in 59 games. They also signed Mats Zuccarello to a 2-year, $8,25 million contract extension (with an AAV $4,125). Zuccarello, 36, put up 22 goals and 45 assists in 78 games and Marcus Foligno to a 4-year, $16 million dollar contract extension (with an AAV of $4 million). He had 7 goals and 14 assists in 65 games last year. It looks like GM Bill Guerin is doing some work on completing some contracts for the team and believes in this core.
- Finally, the LA Kings have signed head coach Todd McLellan to a one-year extension. McLellan, 56, is entering his fifth season with the Kings and has a 141-115-34 record in 290 games with the team. He has helped them make the playoffs in the past 2 seasons but they were eliminated by the Edmonton Oilers, who McLellan used to coach. We wish him all the best as they try to get over the hump and try to go for a deep run.
Thoughts? Lots is ramping up as we near the beginning of the season. Therefore remember to tune in each week to get all the latest news in the world of hockey.
For more hockey news, different takes or if you want to chat about anything hockey give me a follow @hockey_two on TWITTER and give us a follow on YouTube, or at https://twoguysandhockeytalk.com/.
- Pawel ‘The Cat’
