Fantasy Take – Latest NHL Moves

One of the few dominoes left in free agency was the final destination of former Montreal forward Tomas Tatar. He was in a very weird spot where he was healthy scratched for most of the playoffs in favour of players like Paul Byron (who just had major hip surgery), Jake Evans (who could play centre), [...]

The Toronto Maple Leafs have signed left wing Nick Ritchie to a two-year contract with a cap hit of $2.5 million. The Leafs receive a 25-year-old power forward who has recorded high penalty minute and hit totals as well as flashes of scoring ability throughout his career. Best-case scenario, he’s a replacement for Zach Hyman [...]

With Colorado re-signing Gabriel Landeskog to his monster extension, it seemed likely Brandon Saad would be moving on from the Avalanche. Exactly where he would land might take some time, but that he was gone was pretty much a sure thing. The 28-year-old winger made his decision on Thursday, and he’s going to a rival: [...]

After losing to Tampa in the 2020 Finals in the summer bubble, and then losing to Tampa in the 2021 Finals as a member of the Montreal Canadiens, it appears as if Corey Perry has had enough. He is done losing to Tampa Bay, so he’s decided to join the Bolts instead: https://twitter.com/KevinWeekes/status/1420786764160159745 Perry is [...]

The Colorado Avalanche landed goaltender Darcy Kuemper from the Arizona Coyotes in exchange for a first-round draft pick and defenseman Conor Timmins. The Avalanche Get: Their No.1 goaltender that they lost earlier in the day when Philipp Grubauer signed with Seattle. Kuemper was an elite netminder in this league for one-and-a-half seasons. Then he got [...]

The Boston Bruins have signed goalie Linus Ullmark to a four-year contract worth $5 million per season. Raise your hand if you thought Ullmark would receive the second-highest goalie contract this offseason (behind Philipp Grubauer with Seattle, which is a surprise of its own). Ullmark just received a $20 million contract. That amount and term [...]

The Buffalo Sabres acquire offensive defenseman Will Butcher and a fifth-round pick from the New Jersey Devils for future considerations. New Jersey will retain $1M of the $3.73M contract, so basically they are paying the Sabres a fifth rounder for taking $2.73M off their cap. The Sabres Get: a decent puck-mover, but a rather weak [...]

The Boston Bruins have signed Erik Haula to a two-year contract with a $2.375 million cap hit, Nick Foligno to a two-year contract worth $3.8 million per season, and Tomas Nosek to a two-year contract worth $1.75 million per season. These are mainly depth signings that likely shouldn’t compete for first-line or top-unit power-play duties. [...]

One of the more odd moves of the offseason was Chicago letting Pius Suter walk for nothing. His rookie season in the NHL saw him post 27 points in 55 games playing just 16:20 a night. A 40-point pace for a rookie is not nothing. Besides that, he had a carry-in percentage on zone entries [...]

The Arizona Coyotes have signed power forward Dmitrij Jaskin to a one-year contract worth a whopping $3.2M. They also sign winger Ryan Dzingel to a one-year deal worth $1.1M. The Coyotes Get: two fill-in wingers to temporarily fill the void on the suddenly-rebuilding Coyotes, to give their prospects in the system more time to marinate. [...]