NHL Morning Coffee Headlines – August 4, 2025
Why Conor Garland will be an important player for the Canucks this season, Predators defenseman Spencer Stastney reveals his mental health challenges, and more in today’s NHL Morning Coffee Headlines.
THE PROVINCE: Conor Garland’s tenacity drove him from being an undersized NHL depth player to a top-six winger with a six-year contract. It has made him a key player for the Vancouver Canucks as they attempt to rebound from a disappointing 2024-25 campaign.
The 29-year-old Garland is in the final season of his current contract. He signed his $36 million extension on July 1. He cited his versatility and willingness to improve as being among the reasons why the Canucks opted to re-sign him.
Vancouver Canucks winger Conor Garland (NHL Images).
Garland also proved his worth playing for Team USA’s gold-medal team at the 2025 World Championships, meshing well on a line with Utah Mammoth forwards Clayton Keller and Logan Cooley.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Garland’s performance was among the few bright spots for the Canucks last season, finishing third among their scorers with 50 points. His character, work ethic, and leadership have made him an invaluable part of their roster core.
THE TENNESSEAN: Spencer Stastney revealed his lifelong battle with anxiety and depression during his appearance on the “32 Thoughts: The Podcast” on Sunday.
The 25-year-old Nashville Predators defenseman revealed his mental health issues stemmed from family issues, including his parents’ divorce and guilt over pursuing a hockey career while his family struggled.
Stastney said he was on the verge of retirement last year. He credited the support and therapy he received from the Predators and the NHL Players’ Association for helping him continue his career, but admits he has more work to do as he attempts to figure out his relationship with hockey.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Here’s hoping Stastney finds the best path for a happy and productive life, even if it leads him outside of hockey.
EXPRESSEN.SE: Former NHL forward Jakub Vrana is expected to sign a contract this week with Linköping HC in the Swedish Hockey League. The 29-year-old Czech winger spent his formative years with Linköping before he was drafted by the Washington Capitals in 2014.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Vrana’s best seasons were with the Capitals from 2016-17 to 2020-21, winning the Stanley Cup in 2018 and tallying a career-best 25 goals and 52 points in 69 games in 2019-20.
In nine NHL seasons with the Capitals, Detroit Red Wings, St. Louis Blues, and Nashville Predators, Vrana had 119 goals and 223 points in 406 regular-season games, and 8 points in 38 playoff contests.
NESN: Former Boston Bruins center Jakub Lauko signed last week with HC Dynamo Pardubice in the Czech Extraliga. The 25-year-old spent three seasons with the Bruins and Minnesota Wild (2022-23 to 2024-25), netting 11 goals and 28 points in 139 regular-season games, and two points in eight postseason games.
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH: The Columbus Blue Jackets have brought back Barry Brennan as their strength and conditioning coach. He held the role from 2005 to 2010, and spent the past 12 years working in the Kontinental Hockey League, including a six-year stint with CSKA Moscow.
Sneaky Pete, in the discussion yesterday about possibly offer-sheeting Alexander Holtz of Vegas you posted this late in the day: “Lots of people blamed Ruff and the Devils for not giving Holtz a shot. But then his own national team left the no 7 OA draft pick off their roster. And he didn’t light things up in Vegas. Probably a bust.”
You could well be bang on there – there are certainly enough high-pick busts since the draft began – but as Yogi pointed out, even a $1.54 1-season “show me” offer would make it extremely difficult for the Golden Knights, already in excess of $7 mi over the cap, to match, and might be a gamble worth taking.
Offhand, I can think of a number of high picks who didn’t exactly light things up early in their careers, some even after changing teams, but who did break out eventually to become serviceable players – Olli Jokinen – Todd Bertuzzi – Josh Bailey, Ryan Johansen – Michael Frolik … and there are probably others. Heck, even the Sedins took a couple of seasons to really get it going.
Now, I’m NOT comparing Holtz to the twins, but I wouldn’t write him of until given a decent chance to find his game.
Not sure if Holtz will pan out, but if it is to happen, it will need to be in an offensive role, not 4th line minutes.
He had a couple opportunities with NJ a few years ago and scored 16 goals in limited minutes, which projected well for his future. But he’s not getting offensive deployment in Vegas.
Could a team like Van give him some decent 2nd or 3rd line deployment under a 1 year prove it deal? Chicago?
Might be worth a shot to see if they can revive any offensive upside.
For Holtz’s sake, I hope you and George are correct. I just think something is awry, whether it’s attitude, effort or a combination. The biggest red flag was being left off his national team. Time will tell.
Garland is a useful player but in my opinion he has a tendancy to shoot first and pass players with better opportunities later, at least when he plays with some players. My biggest problem though is that on a good team he is a nice to have third line winger at 4,5m contract and not a 2nd line winger at 6m. Cant argue with his tenacity though
As for the Holz thing, I have argued for a buy low trade for a team like Vancouver or San Jose etc, a 3rd rounder should do it? Maybe not worth pissing of Vegas with an OS for a player like Holz?
Vegas has done enough monumental pissing off of others to worry about their feelings.
Why would you be worried about pissing Vegas off over Holtz. Vegas doesn’t seem to mind bending rules or pissing other teams off. If you can get a player for nothing that ends up helping your team, you do it
There’s something to be said for shoot first. I think there are too many players who tend to pass the puck when they have a good opportunity to shoot.
Agree with your assessment, Kent. Yeah, tenacity but Garland is listed as 165 pounds. That’s a finesse size, and to put that into a context, Gallagher is listed as 185 pounds. Their stats and contract are about the same and Gallagher is definitely third line material and overpaid.
Were the Canucks not such a mess and desperate to not have more players go out the door, Garland would not have gotten 6 million from them, or anyone else.
“Pissing off Vegas”? Sounds like a plan.
“Pissing off Vegas” sounds like a Nicholas Cage movie.
10 NHL-roster RFAs spread over 9 teams (Anaheim has 2) remain unsigned. Each below – listed by the expected highest to lowest settlements (in my estimated humble opinion) – showing expired cap hit and last season stats and after the team name is their available cap as of this morning, followed by the number of players so far committed to for next season – by position – according to Puckpedia:
NEW JERSEY $6,131,667 – 23 (14F 7D 2G)
LD Luke Hughes 6’ 2” 200lbs 71gp 7g 37a 44pts $925,000
ANAHEIM $21,388,812 – 21 (11F 7D 3G) (see also below)
C Mason McTavish 6’ 1” 220-lbs 76gp 22g 30a 52pts $894,167
MINNESOTA $10,186,835 – 21 (13F 6D 2G)
C Marco Rossi 5’ 9” 182lbs 82gp 24g 36a 60pts $863,334
CALGARY $15,412,500 – 22 (13F 7D 2G)
C Connor Zary 6’ 178lbs 564gp 13g 14a 27pts $863,334
NASHVILLE $10,116,039 – 21 (11F 8D 2G)
RW Luke Evangelista 6’ 183lbs 68gp 10g 22a 32pts $797,500
ANAHEIM (see also above) RW/C Sam Colangelo 6’ 2” 210lbs 32gp 10g 2a 12pts $925,000
SEATTLE $6,649,287 – 22 (14F 6D 2G)
LD Ryker Evans 6’ 195lbs 73gp 5g 20a 25pts $897,500
CHICAGO $18,662,024 – 22 (12F 7D 3G)
LD Wyatt Kaiser 6’ 175lbs 57gp 4g 4a 8pts $916,667
COLUMBUS $16,342,501 – 22 (13F 7D 2G)
RW Mikael Pyyhtia 6’ 176lbs 47gp 4g 3a 7pts $897,500
VEGAS OVER BY $7,638,571 – 22 (13F 7D 2G)
RW Alexander Holtz 6’ 200lbs 53gp 4g 8a 12pts $894,167
Following is the Cap reserve and roster situation for the teams with no NHL-roster RFAs left to sign – most to least:
SAN JOSE $20,682,499 – 22 (12F 8D 2G)
PITTSBURGH $13,053,571 – 23 (13F 8D 2G)
DETROIT $12,086,628 – 23 (14F 7D 2G)
CAROLINA $10,644,291 – 23 (14F 7D 2G)
UTAH – $6,682,143 – 23 (13F 7D 3G)
BUFFALO $5,190,319 – 23 (13F 8D 2G)
OTTAWA $4,294,286 – 22 (13F 7D 2G)
WASHINGTON $4,125,000 – 23 (13F 8D 2G)
WINNIPEG $3,963,810 – 23 (13F 8D 2G)
COLORADO $3,348,333 – 22 (13F 7D 2G)
VANCOUVER $3,270,000 – 22 (13F 7D 2G)
LOS ANGELES $2,668,333 – 23 (13F 8D 2G)
BOSTON $2,081,667 – 23 (14F 7D 2G)
TORONTO $1,919,722 – 23 (14F 7D 2G)
NEW YORK ISLANDERS $1,625,000 – 24 (note that Puckpedia totals are shown as 15F 6D and 2G although they actually list 3G – Sorokin, Varlamov and Rittich)
TAMPA $1,180,001 – 23 (15F 6D 2G)
DALLAS $1,085,084 – 22 (13F 7D 2G)
NY RANGERS $777,976 – 23 (13F 8D 2G)
ST. LOUIS $625,150 – 23 (14F 7D 2G)
PHILADELPHIA – $370,238 – 22 (11F 8D 3G)
EDMONTON $225,834 – 23 (14F 7D 2G)
FLORIDA OVER BY $3,725,000 – 23 (14F 7D 2G)
MONTREAL OVER BY $5,931,667 – 23 (14F 7D 3G incl. Price $10.5 mil – LTIR)
One thing to note re above is that not one team is in danger of not meeting the 2025-26 cap minimum of $70,600,000 – not even San Jose who currently has the largest reserve of $20,682,499 with 22 players committed to for this coming season, since their cap commitment as f today $74,817.501.
So any notion of the Habs dealing Price’s contract for the purpose of helping a team get to the cap floor – as has been floated in here – is really a non-starter.
Besides, barring further moves, they’re going to need to go that route themselves.
George I have mentioned the benefit of the Price contract as actual dollars in the pocket of teams near the cap floor
They can shed contracts by taking on the cap hit.
It will cost $2m to dump up to $8m cash payments.
Anaheim re-upped RFA Sam Colangelo today for 2 years @ $850,000 AAV – a cut of $75,000 from his previous cap hit of $925,000 and, for the first year, it’s a 2-way deal, switching to 1 year in 2026-27.
Kind of a strange settlement given that they still have $20.5 mil in cap reserve and only RFA McTavish left to sign, and the 6’ 2” 210lbs C did score 10g 2a 12pts in just 32gp this past season.
GMs don’t want to be offersheeted obviously and it’s bad form even though it’s legal.
Fans love talking about it till the offer sheet is to one of “their” players.
Teams want as much certainty as possible in building their teams and offer sheets are disrupting, sometimes setting off a bad chain of events.
Worked out well for the Blues.
Offer sheets need to be signed by the player in question. There are names on George’s list above who would likely sign an offer sheet if given the chance.
More offer sheets please – we have to get through August for crying out loud.