Fantasy Take – Latest NHL Moves

The Detroit Red Wings have signed defenseman Shayne Gostisbehere (Ghost-Bear) to a one-year deal worth $4.125M. The Red Wings get: a one-dimensional puck-moving defenseman who re-found his game over the past two seasons. Not to the extent where he can put up 60+ points like he did in 2017-18, but definitely back to a level [...]

The New York Rangers have signed defenseman Erik Gustafsson to a one-year deal worth $825,000. The Rangers get: a one-dimensional puck-moving defenseman who runs hot and cold. Fantasy Players Impacted: Look at this signing the way you looked at it last year when the Capitals signed him. Gustafsson had two points in nine games. Then [...]

The Florida Panthers have traded winger Anthony Duclair to the San Jose Sharks for Steven Lorentz. Duclair missed most of 2022-23 with an Achilles injury, playing in just 20 games. He was able to participate in the Panthers’ long playoff run, averaging about 0.5 PTS/GP between the regular season and the playoffs. He scored a [...]

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 [...]