NHL Morning Coffee Headlines – September 24, 2024
Recaps of Tuesday’s preseason games, the Jets re-sign Cole Perfetti, Wild forward Matt Boldy is sidelined week-to-week, and more in today’s NHL Morning Coffee Headlines.
RECAP OF TUESDAY’S PRESEASON ACTION
NHL.COM: The Utah Hockey Club picked up their first-ever preseason home victory by defeating the Los Angeles Kings 3-2 on an overtime goal by Clayton Keller.
Dallas Stars defenseman Lian Bichsel scored a buzzer-beating goal in a 3-2 win over the Colorado Avalanche.
The Montreal Canadiens blanked the Philadelphia Flyers 5-0. Patrik Laine was held scoreless but generated five shots in his preseason debut with the Canadiens.
Calgary Flames forward Matt Coronato scored twice in a 6-3 win over the Edmonton Oilers in split-squad action. Oilers captain Connor McDavid scored a goal and picked up an assist in this contest. The other Flames squad beat the Oilers 6-1 with Connor Zary tallying twice and collecting an assist and Yegor Sherangovich scoring two goals.
The Buffalo Sabres beat the Columbus Blue Jackets 6-1. Zach Benson and Peyton Krebs each had a goal and an assist.

Winnipeg Jets forward Cole Perfetti (NHL Images).
HEADLINES
THE WINNIPEG SUN: The Jets signed forward Cole Perfetti to a two-year, $6.5 million contract. Perfetti, 23, missed the first six days of training camp before he and the Jets agreed to this new deal. The average annual value is $3.25 million.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: The report indicates the Jets’ initial offer was well below $3.25 million. The Perfetti camp sought a deal comparable to that of Ottawa’s Shane Pinto ($3.75 million AAV) and New Jersey’s Dawson Mercer ($4 million AAV).
Perfetti has little leverage coming off an entry-level contract. He’ll have arbitration rights at the end of this deal and could improve that leverage by improving his performance over the next two years.
TSN: Minnesota Wild forward Matt Boldy is sidelined week-to-week with a lower-body injury. Boldy, 23, could miss the Wild’s season opener on Oct. 10.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Boldy’s become one of the Wild’s best scorers over the last two seasons. They’ll be hoping he makes a swift recovery in time for the start of the upcoming campaign.
THE PROVINCE: InGoal Magazine’s Kevin Woodley reports Thatcher Demko’s knee issue is with the popliteus muscle, located at the back of the knee. The Vancouver Canucks’ goaltender has been rehabbing the injury, which sidelined him since the opening game of the 2024 playoffs.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Woodley doesn’t know the severity of Demko’s injury but supports his claim it’s a rare injury. He said he’s spoken with two people who’ve been in the league for over 30 years and they’ve never seen this condition before.
Demko spoke with the media last week regarding his injury. He didn’t provide a timeline for his return to action but remains confident in the progression of his rehab process.
THE DENVER POST: This is a critical season for Colorado Avalanche goaltender Alexandar Georgiev. He’s in the final season of his three-year contract and is coming off a streaky season as the Avs starter, though he enjoyed a bounce-back performance after allowing seven goals on 23 shots in the opening game of the 2024 playoffs.
The Avalanche parted ways with former starters Philipp Grubauer in 2021 and Darcy Kuemper in 2022. Georgiev is entering a season that will determine if he stays in Colorado beyond one contract.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: The Avalanche must also deal with limited cap space. They have over $73 million invested in 15 active roster players for 2025-26 with Mikko Rantanen, Jonathan Drouin, and Oliver Kylington also eligible for UFA status.
COLORADO HOCKEY NOW: Speaking of contracts, the Avalanche signed winger Logan O’Connor to a six-year contract extension with an AAV of $2.5 million. He’s in the final season of a three-year deal with an AAV of $1.05 million.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: A lengthy but affordable deal for O’Connor. The 28-year-old has become a reliable two-way forward and penalty killer for the Avalanche.
LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL: Alexander Holtz hopes for a fresh start following his trade to the Golden Knights from the New Jersey Devils. Chosen seventh overall in the 2020 NHL Draft, the 22-year-old Holtz struggled to move up in the Devils’ crowded depth chart on the wings.
RG.ORG: Defenseman Tony DeAngelo said he considered every option to sign an NHL contract, including a professional tryout offer, before signing a one-year contract with KHL club SKA St. Petersburg.
THE HOCKEY NEWS: Former NHL goaltender Antti Raanta has signed a one-year contract with Swiss club Geneve-Servette HC.
TSN: Philadelphia Flyers head coach John Tortorella invited Guy Gaudreau, father of the late Johnny and Matthew Gaudreau, to assist with drills on Monday. Gaudreau is a former hockey coach at Holydell Ice Arena and Gloucester Catholic High School in New Jersey.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: A kind gesture by Tortorella, who said he didn’t know the Gaudreaus but extended an open invitation to Guy to return and help the Flyers at any point.
great move by Torterella, behind his gruff has always been a good hearted person
It”s only pre-season bot Oliver Kapanen is going to be hard to send back to Sweden.
I hadn’t seen him play before, just read the rave reviews which are always questionable, but this kid can play. He has a 200 ft game and the puck follows him.
Patrick Laine isn’t in season ready shape but the guy oozes talent and was noticeable all night.
My hidden gem that nobody seems to appreciate is Jared Davidson who’s doggeg checking up and down the ice created a goal.
Both teams were loaded with depth guys, so not a real indicator.
Shout out to Nic Deslauriers for understanding Lucas Condotta standing up for a teammate after a punishing hit….and not rearranging his face as he isn’t a fighter.
Always liked Nic, knows his role and more than willing to drop them when needed but not a goon at all.
Which, is why, HF30, your suggestion of Dvorak and Armia to CBJ (individually or collectively, and/or to other teams), might come to fruition.
Don’t sleep on Heineman. I didn’t see the game either but he looked big and fast. Yes, only pre-season but still …
And we have yet to see Beck …
IE, only saw Heineman in the highlights. Doh!
If I may add to this conversation the only two left hand centermen on the Habs are Newhook & Dvorak, while Suzuki, Dach, Eavns, Kapanen & Beck are all right hand.
I would suggest Dvorak barring injury will stay with the team until at least the trade deadline.
I think Jake Evans is the guy that should be nervous.
Next season, Newhook will likely drop to the third line as a centerman.
LJ,
You mentioned Kapanen to me as being readier than Beck and I’ll tell you he was really noticeable on the ice, more than Beck usually is.
Heineman looked good but Kapanen looks special
For a pre-season game with both team rosters riddled with prospects hoping to be noticed, that was a bit of a strange one last night between the Habs and Flyers.
When I tuned in on RDS the game was about 5 minutes in and when they panned the Flyers bench and I didn’t see Tortorella, my first thought was “has he been ejected already?”
Turns out he just wanted to watch from up high. About a minute after I tuned in the Habs had their first shot on goal. In fact, for the whole game I think both teams registered only about 25 each. Unusual for a pre-season game.
The lack of shots and tight checking continued on into the 3rd, with the Habs leading 1-0 on an early 2nd period goal by prospect Luke Tuch, and having had just 1 shot on goal with a 2-man advantage. Then, in a span of 3 minutes they scored 3 goals on 3 shots as the Flyers collapsed like a $95 suit in the rain.
Ta gotta love pre-season stuff.
Ya gotta love … sheesh … time for a new keyboard … all the letters are faded
In those split-squad games between Calgary and Edmonton, one of them featured p.t.o.’s on both sides getting long looks.
For Calgary, D Tyson Barrie had a solid night of 20.26 ice time, logging an even +/-.
For Edmonton, they used 3 p.t.o.’s in the same game – Mike Hoffman playing 16.35 with 1 goal and a minus 2, D Travis D ermott playing 21.32 and also a minus 2, and C Jasper Weatherby 11.22 with an even +/-.
Interesting about the Avs giving a long term deal to a bottom six forward. I thought only Lou Lamoriello did that.
Actually, Howard, when you look at it closely that could be a solid move by Sakic.
Up to this past season, O’Connor had been a steady, reliable bottom 6 F who had 206 career games under his belt and 82-game averages of 9g 14a 23 pts and a cumulative +25, with his cap hit heading into 2023-24 being $1,050,000.
This past season he played in 57 games scoring 13g 12a 25 pts and was a +13 before season-ending hip surgery in March, That worked out to a projected 82-game average of 19g 17a 36 pts and bringing his +/- cumulative to something over +40.
Apparently the surgery went well, he’s full recovered and, although he was not in last night’s pre-season game he will play in coming games.
A solid 2-way dependable F who can contribute close to 20 goals a season among the bottom 6 is almost as important to the success of a team as is a star top liner, and $2.5 mil per will be a bargain.
You would have to think Jeremy Swayman would be one of the US goaltenders consider for the 4 Nations Cup.
Would missing the first couple of months of the season hurt his chances of getting an invite?
It’s difficult to envision the Bs not having Swagman in nets to start the season. If he is not then he would surely be asking for $10.
So, with the Perfetti signing 6 days into camp we’re down to one … and if Swayman isn’t signed by the season opener it will become a long hold-out.
All along pundits were saying that the Pinto deal in Ottawa would be the logical one for Perfetti.
Pinto got 2 years at $3,750,000 per …Perfetti came in just a notch lower at $3,250,000 per for 2 years.
That leaves Cheveldayov with 23 of 23 and a nice cap cushion of $2,526,309 heading into the season.
Good move by the Avalanche to get O’Connor locked up. I believe miles wood also has a long term deal. So why not? Bottom 6 guys deserve it if they bring it like those two guys do. Now, let’s get Mikko done. To me, georgiev is not that big of a problem? If you watch avalanche games on a regular basis, which I know folks on this site don’t, you have to draw the conclusion that the Avalanche aren’t all that good defensively in front of him? And I think georgiev gets frustrated probably causing his confidence to lack. IMHO, no one really talks about that. He’s a good goaltender but the team has to do better in front of him if they want to go anywhere. Too many easy goals against that aren’t his fault. Anyways, it behooves the Avalanche to get better defensively. We all know they can fill the back of the net but are they accountable on the defensive side of it? To me, that is the $64,000?
Wow Perfetti got Adam Lowry money.
30 y/o journeyman C Chris Tierney (640 career NHL gp with San Jose, Ottawa, Florida, Montreal, New Jersey_ and 40 playoff games with San Jose), has signed a one-year deal with Minsk in the KHL.
Any idea when that Utah Hockey Club is supposed to announce their team nickname?
Since the state has that weird Skinwalker Ranch within its border, why not Utah Skinwalkers? LOL