Fantasy Take – Latest NHL Moves

The Toronto Maple Leafs have signed defenseman John Klingberg to a one-year deal worth $4.15M. The Leafs get: a smart, skilled offensive defenseman. Klingberg is only 30 (turns 31 next month), coming off several semi-productive seasons riddled with short-term injuries. He had a 67-point season back in 2017-18, but has been unable to top 47 [...]

The Detroit Red Wings have signed forward J.T. Compher to a five-year contract with an AAV of $5.10 million. Compher was able to take advantage of his pre-UFA season, posting a career-high 52 points in 82 games. Prior to that, he had never reached the 35-point mark since debuting with the Avalanche in the 2016-17 [...]

Numerous backup/timeshare goalies have changed teams during the free agency period. Dollar amounts are cap hits and not total salary. Jonathan Quick, 1 year, $825,000, NY Rangers Now in the twilight of his career, the 37-year-old Quick is coming off a career-worst (since 2008-09) 3.41 GAA and .882 SV% split between Los Angeles and Vegas. [...]

With New Jersey turning the keys over to the next generation, it seemed likely there would be cap casualties, and Ryan Graves is among them. It was just a matter of where he’d land and he’s in Pittsburgh on a six-year deal, per Elliotte Friedman. The AAV works out to $4.5M a year. Graves posted [...]

The Anaheim Ducks have signed forward Alex Killorn to a four-year contract with an AAV of $6.25 million. Killorn was projected to receive $4.16 million in Alex MacLean’s recent salary projections. Between that and the fact that Killorn is 33 years old and been on some long playoff runs for the Lightning in recent seasons, [...]

Pittsburgh trading for Reilly Smith officially signaled that they would not be re-signing Jason Zucker. He had been a good player for Pittsburgh but missed 63 games over the last three seasons, or nearly 30% of the available contests. Those three seasons also saw him post a lower points/minute rate at 5-on-5 than teammates Danton [...]

One of the more surprising turns of the early portions of the 2023 offseason was seeing the Nashville Predators buy out the contract of Matt Duchene. He wasn’t elite in 2022-23, but he’s a season removed from pushing scoring 43 goals and posting 86 points. Regardless, he was set to go somewhere else and he’s [...]

The Carolina Hurricanes have signed left winger Michael Bunting on a three-year contract at a $4.5 million AAV. In each of his two seasons in Toronto, Bunting had posted back-to-back 20+ goal seasons with at least a plus-20 rating, 80 penalty minutes, and just over two shots per game. He made the most of the [...]

It was clear that Boston would not have the cap space to re-sign deadline acquisition Dmitry Orlov to a new contract in the offseason. After that, it was just a matter of where he’d land and he’s going to Carolina on a two-year deal with an AAV of $7.75M a season, per Elliotte Friedman. Let’s [...]

The Washington Capitals have signed forward Max Pacioretty to a one-year contract worth $2 million. He could also receive up to $2 million in performance-based incentives. The 34-year-old Pacioretty was held to just five games in 2022-23, thanks to an Achilles injury that happened during offseason training. His return to the lineup in January was [...]