NHL Morning Coffee Headlines – June 28, 2024
The remaining 2024 NHL Awards are handed out, the Predators and Juuse Saros agree to a new contract, the Stars will buy out Ryan Suter, the Flames trade Andrew Mangiapane to the Capitals, and much more in today’s NHL Morning Coffee Headlines.
NHL.COM: The major remaining NHL Awards were handed out on Thursday.
Colorado Avalanche center Nathan MacKinnon (NHL Images)
Colorado Avalanche center Nathan MacKinnon took home the Hart Memorial Trophy as the most valuable player to his team and the Ted Lindsay Award as MVP as voted by the NHLPA membership. It’s the first time MacKinnon won those awards.
Connor Hellebuyck of the Winnipeg Jets won the Vezina Trophy as the NHL’s top goaltender. He previously took home that award in 2018-19.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Hellebuyck and Sergei Bobrovsky of the Florida Panthers are the only active NHL goalies to win the Vezina twice.
Vancouver Canucks captain Quinn Hughes won the James Norris Memorial Trophy as the NHL’s top defenseman. It’s the first time Hughes has won this trophy.
Chicago Blackhawks center Connor Bedard won the Calder Memorial Trophy as NHL Rookie of the Year.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Congratulations to this year’s winners of the NHL Awards.
MacKinnon, Hellebuyck and Hughes were part of the 2023-24 First All-Star Team along with Tampa Bay Lightning winger Nikita Kucherov, New York Rangers winger Artemi Panarin and Nashville Predators defenseman Roman Josi.
Edmonton Oilers center Connor McDavid leads the 2023-24 Second All-Star Team. David Pastrnak and Filip Forsberg of the Nashville Predators are the wingers, Cale Makar of the Colorado Avalanche and Adam Fox of the New York Rangers are the defenseman, with Thatcher Demko of the Vancouver Canucks filling the goaltender’s spot.
Bedard headed the All-Rookie Team. The Minnesota Wild’s Brock Faber and New Jersey Devils’ Luke Hughes are the defensemen, Logan Cooley of the Arizona Coyotes (now Utah Hockey Club) and Faber’s teammate Marco Rossi are the forwards, with Pyotr Kochetkov as the goaltender.
TSN: The Nashville Predators have reached an agreement with goaltender Juuse Saros on an eight-year contract extension with an average annual value of $7.74 million. He is eligible to sign the extension on July 1, the opening day of free agency.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Saros, 29, is coming off a four-year deal with an AAV of $5 million. He was the frequent subject of trade speculation this season, especially with promising Yaroslav Askarov expected to join their roster in 2024-25. How this affects Askarov’s future with the Predators remains to be seen.
At the very least, this ends the baseless speculation suggesting Saros would be part of a trade offer to the Toronto Maple Leafs for Mitch Marner.
SPORTSNET: Jeff Marek reported the Dallas Stars will buy out Ryan Suter’s contract. The 39-year-old defenseman had a year remaining on his deal with a cap hit of $4.3 million. The buyout will count as over $783K against the Stars’ cap for 2024-25 and $1.433 million for 2025-26.
Suter is a plus-35 player but is exempt from the 35-plus buyout rules because his contract was not frontloaded and doesn’t contain a signing bonus beyond the first year of the deal.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: This is the second time Suter has been bought out of a contract. The Minnesota Wild bought out the remaining four years of his deal with them in 2021.
CALGARY SUN: The Flames traded winger Andrew Mangiapane to the Washington Capitals on Thursday evening for a second-round pick in 2025. Mangiapane, 28, spent the past seven seasons with the Flames. He has a year remaining on his contract with an average annual value of $5.85 million.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: The rebuild continues in Calgary as Mangiapane joins Jacob Markstrom, Noah Hanifin, Chris Tanev and Elias Lindholm among the players traded by the Flames in 2024. Meanwhile, the Capitals continue to bolster their scoring depth, acquiring Pierre-Luc Dubois last week from the Los Angeles Kings.
TVA SPORTS: Former Montreal Canadiens captain Shea Weber shed light on the left foot and ankle injuries that ended his career.
“There were days when I couldn’t get out of bed, when I couldn’t walk. I don’t walk to talk about the amount of medication I took because it was adding up,” said Weber. He knew halfway through the 2020-21 season that it would be his last. Team doctors confirmed it following the end of the 2021 Stanley Cup Final.
Weber admitted he initially struggled mentally with the premature end of his playing career. He said getting involved in his children’s sports helped him out of his depression.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Weber was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame Class of 2024 earlier this week.
THE HOCKEY NEWS: Washington Capitals GM Brian MacLellan said winger T.J. Oshie is still weighing his options regarding treatment for his chronic back issues. “He’s still in search of a permanent solution, talking to doctors, training staff,” said MacLellan.
Oshie, 37, was limited to 52 games in 2023-24 by recurring injuries, managing 12 goals and 25 points. Over the past several seasons, he was also plagued by back problems.
THE PROVINCE: The Vancouver Canucks signed forward Dakota Joshua to a four-year contract extension with an average annual value of $3.25 million.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: No surprise here. Joshua, 28, tallied a career-high 18 goals last season on the Canucks’ third line and provided a physical presence to the lineup. He thrived under head coach Rick Tocchet.
The Canucks also re-signed Tyler Myers to a three-year contract with an AAV of $3 million.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Entering this season, it was expected the Canucks would let Myers depart this summer as a free agent. Like Joshua, however, Myers performed well under Tocchet and became a valuable part of their defense corps.
It’s also believed the Canucks are considering bringing back Casey DeSmith to back up starter Thatcher Demko. While Arturs Silovs battled hard during the playoffs replacing both sidelined netminders, he still has some weaknesses in his game to sort out.
SAN JOSE HOCKEY NOW: The San Jose Sharks have moved up in the order of the first round of the 2024 NHL Draft. They traded the No. 14 pick (acquired from Pittsburgh last summer in the Erik Karlsson deal) and No. 42 pick to the Buffalo Sabres for the No. 11 pick.
The Sharks also acquired forechecking winger Carl Grundstrom from the Los Angeles Kings for defenseman Kyle Burroughs.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Sharks general manager Mike Grier is wasting no time making moves in this offseason. He’s facing another busy summer as he continues rebuilding his roster.
STLTODAY.COM: The St. Louis Blues hired Claude Julien as an assistant coach and promoted Steve Ott to associate head coach.
TSN: Former NHL forward Daniel Winnik announced his retirement. He spent 11 seasons in the NHL from 2007-08 to 2017-18 with the Arizona Coyotes, Colorado Avalanche, San Jose Sharks, Anaheim Ducks, Toronto Maple Leafs, Pittsburgh Penguins, Washington Capitals and Minnesota Wild. He had 251 points in 798 games.
Winnik spent the past six seasons playing for Geneve Servette in Switzerland.
Saro s contract should give Boston an idea of what they need to pay Swayman!
Saro’s contract also sets the bar for Oettinger and Georgiev come next off season. Tough sledding cap wise for the Avs the next few seasons.
Awards about what I expected from reading the list above. I didn’t watch those last evening, but I did watch something else much more critical and that shook me to the core!
George,
The Donald & Joe show we watched it to……..🙈❗️
Sr,
100% This will be a good measuring stick for all goaltenders….
I actulay thought Saros would get around $8.M to $8.5M…, i was wrong…
I wonder what these goaltender will get…
UllMark $6.M to $6.5M in a New deal with the Sen’s❓
Swayman, a RFA i wonder if its a bridge deal he gets
as the cap go’s up $4.M this yr and $4.M next year to $92.M
Then maybe he go’s after a 8 Year deal with Boston
then there is Ila Samsonov he played in-front of a really crapy Maple Leafs d….. the past few years,
I wonder where he ends up …..🤔
Wings still looking and so are the LA king’s for starters❓
Dallas need a good back up….
Congrats to last nights winners
The actual production and host of the show was very lackluster if you ask me
Nice interview and smile Kuch…. Not!!
Would love to see it go back to the way it used to be; all awards done at once (not announced during playoffs).
Mangiapane trade:
Dumpathon/rebuild in Calgary? Closing in on $30M in space.
Washington over by $2 M (19 players including Backstrom)
If Backstrom comes back; big cap problems; if not , just $7M for 5 players
Dakota Johnson deal a very good signing by Alvin IMHO. Kid has got grit to spare.
Re Sabres/Sharks pick swaps; this I don’t get (happening now that is)
A second given up to move your first round pick up 3 spots type of deal usually happens on draft floor. Teams see a player they want has slid down originally rankings and still available; but won’t be by the time it gets to your pick; worth a 2nd to move up and snatch him
Now, anything can happen and it could be that 3 or 4 players Sharks were looking at are STILL available at 11th, so they’d get one of them anyway at 14th pick.
I certainly can see a preemptive (pre draft) trade of assets to move into top 5 of 6; but handing out a 2nd to move from 14th to 11th now, just seems a stretch
Re Sharks move to 11th, saw on ESPN that they were also confused (perplexed??) on this early move ; unless, they speculated ; that this was a first of 2 moves ; with the end result to get up even earlier in the draft (top 5)??? They made no suggestions on next moves; just pondered if this “could” be Grier’s end-game
Mmm , I don’t know about that; but for fun; I’ll suggest the following:
11th overall, Will Smith, Kunin, 53rd overall to Jackets
for
4th overall and 69th overall
Sharks then have Celebrini and Lindstrom 1& 2 down the middle for at least 7 years
I cannot stop giggling at “Dakota Johnson” sorry. 50 Shades of something?
Good one and noted
Auto – correct sucks
Sweeney presser yesterday, says he is still working on a deal with Heinen and all others are going to market. Has had little contact from Debrusk camp.
He says their going to work with Korpisalo who is now reunited Bob Essena his goalie coach from his time in LA
Caper
I hope the Leafs are in on Heinen if he can’t find a deal in BOS.
He’s the type of player that outplays his contract each season.
Really hoping the Leafs interest in DeBrusk is just a bad rumour.
I really thought they might flip Korpisalo but they’re still saving $2M against the cap vs having Ullmark as back-up
Daryl, I’m a fan of Debrusk, yes he’s very streaky but he can score and skate, not overly physical but doesn’t shy away. He didn’t like Bruce Cassidy approach to coaching him, not sure how well he would preform under Berube and the Toronto market.
It’s going to be interesting to see what he signs for. He’s coming off $4m, I don’t have him getting much more max at $5m
Caper, confused by your comment about Korpisalo being reunited with Bob Essensa, I believe Essensa has been a Bruins goalie coach since the early 2000’s?
Only the NHL could orchestrate such an amateurish spectacle. If goalie Bob hauls the Cup back to Russia for a visit, hopefully he will take Matt Friend along and leave him there. Friend is an embarrassment to the league and to the players in attendance.
Saros will be like John Gibson, getting traded any day now for 8 seasons and counting.
Grundstrom is a good pickup by San Jose. The guy is a wrecking ball. Underrated. Good 200ft player… my favorite Swede in the league.
They just have to hope – if they do sign him – that he is less prone to injury in Toronto through the way he plays the game – hard-nosed shot-blocking machine – than he’s been in his previous stops, where he was a frequent visitor to the IR.