NHL Morning Coffee Headlines – June 26, 2025
The Mammoth acquire JJ Peterka from the Sabres, the Oilers trade Evander Kane to the Canucks, the Golden Knights re-sign Reilly Smith and are close to re-signing Brandon Saad, the latest CBA news, and more in today’s NHL Morning Coffee Headlines.
THE BUFFALO NEWS/THE SALT LAKE TRIBUNE: The Buffalo Sabres traded winger JJ Peterka to the Utah Mammoth in exchange for defenseman Michael Kesselring and forward Josh Doan. The Mammoth also signed Peterka to a five-year, $38.5-million contract with an average annual value (AAV) of $7.7 million.
Buffalo Sabres trade winger JJ Peterka to the Utah Mammoth (NHL Images).
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Peterka, 23, completed his three-year, entry-level contract. The up-and-coming winger finished second among Sabres scorers this season with a career-best 68-point performance. However, he was reportedly unhappy in Buffalo and wanted to move on.
This is the second significant June trade made by Utah general manager Bill Armstrong. Last year, he acquired defenseman Mikhail Sergachev to improve the depth on his blueline. This time, he’s bolstered the offense among his top-six forwards with a player who fits well within his club’s young roster core.
Kesselring, 25, should address the Sabres’ need for an experienced right-shot defenseman to skate alongside Owen Power. Doan, 21, is a promising power forward with middle-six forward potential.
The Sabres might not be done dealing. I’ll have more in today’s Rumor Mill.
EDMONTON JOURNAL/THE PROVINCE: The Oilers traded winger Evander Kane to the Vancouver Canucks for a fourth-round pick in the upcoming 2025 NHL Draft.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: This was a straightforward salary dump by the cap-strapped Oilers, clearing Kane’s $5.125 million cap hit from their books for next season. The move removes some toughness and speed from the Oilers’ scoring lines, but it was necessary to free up cap room to re-sign restricted free agent Evan Bouchard and to address other roster needs.
The Canucks are betting that Kane can replace the toughness and physical leadership they lost when they traded J.T. Miller to the New York Rangers in January. The 33-year-old winger is a Vancouver native who is a year away from unrestricted free-agent eligibility.
It’s assumed Kane will be motivated to play well for his hometown club in the final year of his contract. Canucks management downplayed his history as a toxic dressing-room presence earlier in his career. Nevertheless, Kane is entering a fragile Vancouver dressing room. Divisions between Miller and Elias Pettersson before the former’s departure contributed to the Canucks’ missing the playoffs.
Adding Kane could be like pouring gasoline on a fire. If that happens, the ensuing drama could have significant consequences for the Canucks’ hopes of rebounding from this season’s disappointing performance.
VEGAS HOCKEY NOW: The Golden Knights re-signed winger Reilly Smith to a one-year, $2 million contract. They are also reportedly close to signing winger Brandon Saad to a new contract.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: The Smith signing leaves the Golden Knights with $7.6 million in cap space with 18 active roster players under contract for 2025-26. Saad is coming off a one-year, $1.5 million deal with Vegas after his previous contract with the St. Louis Blues was terminated earlier this season.
Vegas is rumored to be among the favorites to sign Mitch Marner when the Toronto Maple Leafs winger becomes a UFA on July 1. Assuming Saad gets a deal similar to Smith, the Golden Knights will have to shed considerable cap space to create room to make a competitive bid for Marner.
SPORTSNET: Elliotte Friedman reports the NHL and NHL Players’ Association are believed to be getting close on a new collective bargaining agreement.
Details haven’t been revealed, but Friedman listed several items believed to be under consideration. They include reducing maximum length contracts from eight years to seven for re-signing players and from seven years to six for free agents from another team (UFAs).
Draft rights could be extended to age 22, and deferred salaries could be eliminated. There could be the implementation of a “permanent” emergency backup goalie (EBUG) to practice and travel with their NHL team. Revenue sharing could be tweaked to help some of the more middle-class teams.
The league will poll teams this summer for feedback on the decentralized draft. If the format proves unpopular, the league could revert to the previous format.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: The players might not kick up much of a fuss over a one-year reduction of contract lengths. Seven and eight-year deals can be cumbersome for a player who might prefer a trade, but the remaining term of their contract hampers efforts to move them. Besides, we could see fewer of those lengthy deals if more players sign shorter-term deals with an eye on cashing in under a higher salary cap down the road.
Moving from an 82-game regular season to an 84-game schedule has also been discussed. It could go into effect in 2026-27, reducing the preseason by four games. Changes to long-term injury reserve rules have also been part of the talks.
EDMONTON JOURNAL: The Oilers’ 2025 Stanley Cup playoff run raked in over $266 million for the city of Edmonton.
DAILY FACEOFF: Anthony Di Marco reports the New Jersey Devils remain in contract talks with Jake Allen. The pending UFA goalie is seeking at least a two-year term with an AAV of around $5 million, depending on the market and term. Allen is the top player in a shallow UFA goalie market.
I m in favor of the schedule changing to 84 games because I felt exhibitions games were a waste of time and some players got serious injuries one being Doughty of the LAKings. It s a better deal for season ticket holders instead of them paying for meaningless games as part of their season ticket packages.
Utah top 9 getting there.. and they have 14 million in cap space with no important players to resign (Cooley next summer).
Buffalo loses the best player in every trade. every year.
ds, Utah is in a good spot cap-wise with 20 players committed to for next season and $14,982,143 with which to sign 3.
Their only remaining RFA is 6′ 4″ 220 lb left-shot C Jack McBain. coming off a cap hit of $1,599,999 after an 82 game season of 13g 14a 27 pts. A modest bridge deal increase to about $2.5 per seems in order there, and once completed they’ll have close to $12.5 with which to sign 2.
It’s doubtful they bring back any of their 3 UFAs – C/RW Nick Bjugstad (exp. $2,100,000); LW/C Michael Carcone (exp. $775,000); and RD Robert Bortuzo (exp. $775,000)
They could be big shoppers come UFA day.
That’s the best possible deal for Peterka? How does Kevyn Adams still hold job? Mammoth fleeced the Sabres?
I’m not saying that Utah didn’t get the best player, but if he was adamant about not signing long term in Buffalo, they had to move him.
And while the return seems underwhelming from an offensive perspective, I don’t think Buffalo misses much offense as they have Benson or Ostlund or Quinn who should fill the offense.
Kesserling is a big, defensive D who plays the right side and, depending on who he is paired with, should unlock more offense from his LD partner (Dahlin, Power, or Byram).
And Doan could be a good 3rd line grinder for them who plays both ways and brings grit.
Those are things Buffalo needed.
The NHL is a copycat league, and maybe the fact that Florida’s style beating Edm twice in the finals does sway some teams on how they adjust their rosters to win.
Utah got the best player, but could Kesserling and Doan make Buffalo a better, well-rounded team next year? That will be the key.
I think you’re right F7. Kesselring is way underrated. He’s one of those dmen that just quietly gets it done. In the games against the Canucks this year he always stood out for me.
I wonder if he’s related in any way to General Albert (Smiling Al) Kesselring?
For the love of god don’t expanded the season. It needs to contract. Gee. Let’s make regular season games even more boring and meaningless.
Agree 100% Chrisms. In the SCF EDM finished 9th in overall standings, FLA was 11th. The Oiler players basically said they were just getting through the regular season and gearing up for playoffs. Not intentionally, just the was the way it felt.
Presidents Trophy winners rarely win.
I think we see more injuries not less as vets don’t play much in the preseason, now they will. Less time to have the prospects with the team and playing against other NHL’ers, at least on the road.
I see some things the players might be giving up, like this and contract term, what is the league giving up? Has to be something to get concessions like this?
84 games schedule brings more revenue. Also, consider expansion team or two with two extra games.
I’d love to see the schedule cut to 62 games. Home and home with each team. Games would mean more. Players healthier so better product. I am well aware that as a gate driven league it’s not happening but it would also drive up attendance at barns that don’t always sell out.
I know times have changed and preseason isn’t meant to get players into shape, but it is useful in practice time and determining rosters.
I’d change the “veteran” dressing to 12 from 8, making the games more serious and determinative in roster adding or cutting.
Regular season schedule should be cut not grown giving the scheduler the opportunity to cut down on back to back games.
Considering how hard players are expected to play in an extremely fast and violent game, players have less recovery time and even less practice time to learn, adjust with “forced days off”
When players are in better shape, refining systems against similarly constructed teams you have less chance of injuries and preseason is the time to set that in motion.
As it is we tend to discount the first 10 games of the season as a break in period having little predictability of how the season will go.
Agree with all but the last point. A team that has a bad first 10 games will put its playoff hopes in serious jeopardy. Here is a thought from Friedmann:
“Regular readers of this blog know I keep a Nov. 1 stat. Updated number: in the salary cap era, only 10 of 72 teams four or more points out of the playoffs after games on that date recovered to make it. Chicago and Nashville missed this year. A lot of people talk American Thanksgiving, but your season can be over weeks before that.”
Last year the Habs had 11 games in October and only an unlikely push got them into the playoffs.
Amen to that brother!
A reasonable season would be more like 70 games, starting in mid-September.
Let the league sell the NHL playoff for what it is really worth. This is hockey trench warfare. Should be better marketed for tv markets…
I think Kesselring is seriously underrated and is the BIG prize for the Sabers! Still the return should have been a little better, but addressing the RS D issue was worth it!
Johnny Z, this is the 4th fairly significant deal in recent weeks – Marchment, Zegras, Kane and now Peterka and following each one there have been observations that each should have brought back more.
I think – and hope – that reality is finally about to sink in.
Not sure what you mean, George, or that the criticism about insufficient returns is accurate.
But it does seem out of step with the near universal observations that there are more buyers than sellers for centres, RDH, forwards, and goalies (hell, that’s everyone!).
LJ, what I meant by that is, when posts were going back and forth in here as to what players like Marchment, Kane and Peterka could bring back in trades it was almost always way above what they actually brought back when reality entered the picture. We do tend to sometimes over rate some players – especially if the discussion is about players on the team we follow closely.
I think it matters when other GM’s know when a player is requesting trade, and will that player extend for a fair longer term deal, which Peterka did. It happened so fast, have to think his agent was involved in facilitating a deal.
Another way to look at it is Utah got a great return for Kesserling and Doan! Doan is less of a known commodity as he is young, but has good upside. Kesserling is a young, long, proven RD. He has value as demand is higher than supply for RD’s. Kind of a Carlo type IMO.
George, interesting insight about JJ Peterka off the ice from a Buffalo radio sports talk show, After the Whistle
“JJ Peterka was more concerned about serving drinks behind a bar at 4 o’clock in the morning”.
Sort of reminds me of an old saying from my youth, back when I was in my late teens, early 20s – I’m here for a good time, not a long time.
Heh. Interesting insight indeed.. Hope he’s not a budding Derek Sanderson.
Having permanent EBUGs will make practices very awkward………
GMBA First GM to trade a Doan…..hey dad, what do you do when you get traded? Dunno son….never happened to me.
Bruins .. it’s reported Geekie wants a 4 year $6,5 per … ( he made $2 million last season )
seriously Sweeney can’t give him that contract .. the prior two years to last Geekie scored a combined 33 goals & last season he scored 33 goals which I think was a product of lack of goal scorers the Bruins had besides Pasta they didn’t had much else … he wants that $$$ let him go
Yeah, that’s crazy. More than triple the salary because Pastrnak carried him to a great year.
2 years @ $4M each would be a good prove-it deal.
Welcome to a rising cap world!
Agree it’s too much Joe and foleyd7, not so much because of what he was earning before, but because he has only done it once. heck, he only scored that many in a season once and that was in Jr. But can’t blame him for asking.
He’s a pretty good player and can finish, so has value.
Hey, I’m a rebuild guy, trade him for picks in next year’s draft or prospects.
The UFA market is pretty shallow and teams looking for a scoring, and there are plenty, who miss out on the other guys might buck up decent assets.
Heck, trade him to the Leafs, I don’t care.
If you Google “what should a 33 goal 57 points season be worth in NHL cap” you’ll get this:
“A 33-goal, 57-point season in the NHL would typically be worth between $5 million and $7 million on the open market, depending on various factors. However, if a player achieved this with a $2 million cap hit like Morgan Geekie, it would be considered a significant bargain. Players with similar offensive production can command higher salaries, especially if they are younger, play a key role on a contending team, or are considered a top-line player.
Here’s a breakdown of the factors that influence the value of such a season:
Position:
Centers and wingers who produce at this level are typically more valuable than defensemen or players in other roles.
Age:
Younger players with this production are more likely to command a higher cap hit because of their potential for future growth.
Team Context:
Players on contending teams may be willing to take a bit less to stay with a winning team.
Roster Construction:
A team’s salary cap situation and how well the player fits into the overall roster will influence the contract they are offered.
Free Agency Market:
The number of players available at a similar level of production can also influence the market value.
Cap Hit vs. Production:
Players like Morgan Geekie, who achieve this level of production on a lower cap hit, are considered to have excellent value for their team.
Again, there’s reality creeping in.
Don’t disagree on that George, and agents provide players with the data/matrix etc so they know what the #’s are too. Hence the ask.
If he had done this back to back, or 2 of last 3, then sure. It’s not he is coming off an ELC and is 22 and still has room to improve.
Beware the one year wonders, especially in a contract year.
Kinda like the Swayman debate last year, he was never the #1 guy, so his ability to do it was somewhat an unknown.
Whether or not Geekie can keep producing at a 30 or even 25 goal level is a very open question IMO.
Hence my suggestion to trade him, but I’m also a rebuild the B’s guy. I’d trade all kinds of guys.
I understand your caution, Ray, but let’s face it, always in the back of a GM’s mind after a lucrative deal is involved is, “will he continue to produce at the pace we just paid for?” A significant fall-off, of course, would be a major problem, but there is also the possibility that a player will produce at an even better pace that would suddenly make his contract a bargain.
Works both ways.
Where Geekie is concerned, if you disregard his 38 games with Carolina involving spot duty and look at just his 2 seasons with Seattle and 2 so far with Boston, you see a steady progression for the 26 y/o 6′ 3″ 210lb right-shot C:
73gp 7g 15a 22 pts -16
69gp 9g 19a 28 pts +14
76gp 17g 22a 39 pts +6
79gp 33g 24a 57 pts +3
I don’t think it’s a case of anyone “carrying him” – you don’t score 33 goals off charity … it’s a skill that can’t be taught … you either have it or you don’t
GeorgeO,I agree totally with you.Geekie has scored 50 goals his 2 years in Boston. He had a chance to play top 6 minutes and he contributed. If I am not mistaken other than Pasternak they Don t have any other Players that have produced like that.
GeorgeO,I agree totally with you.Geekie has scored 50 goals his 2 years in Boston. He had a chance to play top 6 minutes and he contributed. If I am not mistaken other than Pasternak they Don t have any other Players that have produced like that.
I know how much the Vegas owner loves his shiny new toys, but I still can’t see how they can fit Marner onto their roster. Even if they put Pietrangelo on LTIR for the year, they still will be tight on space if Marner gets his $12M+ AAV. They need to think twice about trading Hertl because Eichel will be a UFA next season. Can’t see how they could extend Eichel while having a big Marner contract on their books. Think these Marner -> VGK rumors are all smoke and mirrors by his agent
I think Vegas does need to move a forward even without Marner and Hertl is 31 but they did give up 2 1sts for him(player and pick)
Before Golden Knights expansion draft strong rumor Penguins weren’t going to protect Marc Andre Fleury. Before the expansion draft Marc. andre Fleury and his wife looking for house in Vegas. Turns out expansion draft trade Marc Andre Fleury to the Golden Knights. Why rumors reporting Mitchy Marner and his wife looking for house in Vegas?
Bruins sign Geekie and bring in a couple of more goal scorers guaranteed Geekie won’t get 33 goals again in a Bruins new uniform
Joe other than Pasternak who is the last Bruin to score 33 goals?Who are you going to replace Geekies goals with?In your other post how far up the draft board and who are you going to draft?
It’s the 4/6.5 he wants … don’t you think that a little high ?
Rumor Sharks might go in another direction and not pick Misa .. would Zacha … Lohrei and #7 get them to 3rd pick ?
No
Bruins … need to move Korpisalo..Goalie DiPierto can’t be let go after the improvements he made this past season and to sign him and send him back to minors is a waste …move Korpisalo for a draft pick and sign DiPierto to backup Swayman
Thinking Marner is the perfect player for the Canes to sign.. they have the cap and a roster full of players already signed … they will need to replace a Dman besides … Canes are in a good Spot
I disagree, Joe. Marner may be the best playmaker in the league, but that’s about the last thing the Canes need. They need finishers, maybe another D, and some thuggery. I’d much rather they deploy the estimated $14M on 2 Bennett-types than on one luxury item they don’t really need.
Agree on the Canes and Marner Whalercane, but the Bennett types, who also score are pretty darn rare. So teams settle if in win now mode.
Speaking of settling, Geekie (6’3″) from Boston might be available for as little as Dallas’ 1st next year and the Canes 2nd?
Mikep… I agree on the smoke an mirrors. Trying to drive the price up. The Kings are rumored to be in on him. I would rather see them keep Gavrikov and add Boeser.
Agree. Marner isn’t worth the numbers being floated.
How far up the draft board could a Lohrei.. Zacha & # 7 pick get the Bruins … it would also add 8 million to cap and if they can move Korpisalo it would give them around 37 million in cap to play with …
Strange people think preseason games is a waste of time now and yet players who miss the preseason usually end up having a bad season. Plus in a lot of cities it gives people who can’t afford regular season prices a chance to go to a game
Here’s my reaction to an 84 game schedule:
Too many games and, may I add, too many teams.
I love the English Premier League with 20 teams and promotion and relegation for three teams at the end of every season. Wouldn’t it be great if the NHL used this model?
As a footie fan, this – while admittedly a total pipe dream – would be the best! Makes for so many exciting games.
E.g. your team is out of the playoff hunt? Games are still exciting because you don’t want to get demoted! (This also gets rid of the tanking issue)
Draft would have to be figured out another way, but that wouldn’t be overly complicated.
Anyway, it’ll never happen but I am daring to dream with you, BCLeafFan!
We’ve already inherited the “I’ve been pole-axed” dives followed by sudden recoveries that should be chronicled in medical journals, thanks. Don’t need that schematic which exists simply because it’s impossible to have a single league with over 150 teams (or whatever the grand total is).
George, but how about two leagues with twenty teams each? And three up/three down every year?
Why not include MLB and NBA (currently 30 teams each) and the NFL (32 teams)?
Have to admit some of the rumors circulating on fan sites can be so absurd with no basis in reality.
For example
To Habs: Dobson
To NYI: 16 OA + Mailloux
My silly season thought for Hab UFA signing.
Radek Faksa 31 y/o 6’3 215, shoots L, 57% faceoff.. Physical beast, shot blocker.
He doesn’t score much but great 3C or 4C for the money.
Frank Seravalli: Re JJ Peterka trade: There were so many interesting offers on the table, I’m surprised Buffalo went with this one; Wild offered Rossi+, Blues put Kyrou on table, a team offered 2 1sts+; Isles’ Dobson was in the conversation – DFO Rundown
Sabers really wanted that BIG RD!! Kinda reminds me of the Taylor for Adam trade, but Sabers did better with a 2 for 1. I think they will be very happy with Kesselring. Conversely, Utah will be even more happy with Peterka.
Now trade Byram+ a mid-rounder for Kyrou
Let go of Leddy