In today’s edition of Stat Hockey’s NHL News & Rumours there are some surprising and interesting moves made by a few teams. Plus interest is increasing for a free agent still in search of an NHL contract this season.
Sabres Sign Samuelsson to Big Early Extension
The Buffalo Sabres locked up one of their young defencemen to a seven-year, $30 million extension. Mattias Samuelsson will have an AAV of $4.285 million. The 22-year-old has played 54 career NHL games over the past two seasons and recorded 12 assists. He is big, plays a hard game, and is strong defensively.
The Sabres took a chance with this signing considering he’s played so few games at the NHL level. But they’ve liked what they’ve seen and wanted to lock him up before the cap rises and he asks for more in a year or two. Chris Johnston made a comparison between the signing of Samuelsson and John Klingberg’s first contract. Klingberg received a seven-year, $4.25 million AAV contract after just 64 career NHL games. The Sabres may have a lot of cap space now, but will soon be locking up their young players to larger salaries. This contract should help them down the line.
Canadiens Scratching Drouin on Opening Night
The Montreal Canadiens’ opening night roster is set and the lines appear to be as well. In a surprising turn of events, Jonathan Drouin isn’t expected to be in the opening night lineup vs the Toronto Maple Leafs. Instead, he will be a healthy scratch.
https://twitter.com/patrick_lortie/status/1579881092177223684
It’s surprising, but the Canadiens do have a deep forward group and with the addition of Juraj Slafkovsky into the group as well, there was going to be someone sitting on the sidelines. The forward lines for opening night are projected as follows:
Cole Caufield – Nick Suzuki – Josh Anderson
Sean Monahan – Kirby Dach – Mike Hoffman
Juraj Slafkovsky – Christian Dvorak – Brendan Gallagher
Rem Pitlick – Jake Evans – Evgeni Dadonov
Milano Gaining Interest Again
After Sonny Milano was cut from his PTO with the Calgary Flames this preseason, the future was unknown. Now there appears to be interest gaining for the free agent forward, per Elliotte Friedman. Milano is a former first round pick of the Columbus Blue Jackets and scored 14 goals and 34 points last season with the Anaheim Ducks, career highs.
Related: 3 Teams Sonny Milano Could Sign With Before 2022-23 Season
He has made it known that he wants to stay in North America and is willing to sign a cheap, one-way deal. He has gotten offers to go overseas and play, but a team is bound to come along and take a chance on the forward considering his production last season.
Oilers Send Down Top Prospect Broberg
The Edmonton Oilers sent down Philip Broberg to the AHL after he was almost guaranteed a spot on the team before training camp. He was outplayed by Markus Niemelainen and Ryan Murray, but the Oilers are in a cap crunch which has forced them to make certain roster moves as well.
The #Oilers have recalled forward Devin Shore from the @Condors & loaned defenceman Philp Broberg to Bakersfield.
— Edmonton Oilers (@EdmontonOilers) October 12, 2022
There is a possibility the Oilers allow him to play top minutes in the AHL for a while or bring him back up as soon as Kailer Yamamoto and Warren Foegele heal up from possible season-opening injuries. The Oilers are one of the teams who are in desperate need of the salary cap to rise. But as they sent down Broberg, they called back up Devin Shore to play on the fourth line in the season opener.
Bruins Sign Stralman While D-Core is Banged Up
It has been well documented that the Boston Bruins will have their hands full with a number of injuries to key players to start the 2022-23 season. Amongst them are two of the team’s top defenders, Charlie McAvoy and Matt Grzelcyk.
The Bruins signed Anton Stralman to a one-year, $1 million deal to help bring stability and consistency to the back-end, not only when the group is injured, but after that as well. The 36-year-old played 74 games for the Arizona Coyotes last season and scored eight goals and 23 points. He also averaged 21:20 per game, kills penalties, blocks shots, and plays physically. This is a good signing by the Bruins.
This was another edition of Stat Hockey’s NHL News & Rumours as I keep you up to date with the latest around the NHL.
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