NHL Morning Coffee Headlines – July 16, 2026
The league announced the home openers for the 2026-27 regular season, the Flyers re-signed Trevor Zegras, the Devils landed Anthony Mantha, the Jets inked Cole Perfetti to a new deal, and more in today’s NHL Morning Coffee Headlines.
NHL.COM: The league announced the 2026-27 regular season, expanded to 84 games, will commence on Tuesday, Sept. 29, with a tripleheader broadcast on ESPN in the United States and a doubleheader on Sportsnet in Canada.
The schedule begins at 5 pm ET with the Florida Panthers visiting the Carolina Hurricanes, who will be raising their 2025-26 Stanley Cup championship banner.
At 7 pm ET, the Montreal Canadiens travel to Toronto to face the Maple Leafs.
The New York Rangers face off against the Boston Bruins at 8 pm ET; the Vancouver Canucks meet the Edmonton Oilers at 10 pm ET; and the Chicago Blackhawks will tangle with the Vegas Golden Knights at 10:30 pm ET.
The league also introduced the dates for all 32 home-opening games.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Follow the link above to find out when your favorite NHL team’s home opener will be.
The complete 2026-27 regular-season schedule will be released on Thursday, July 16, at 1 pm ET.
PHILLY HOCKEY NOW: The Flyers avoided salary arbitration with Trevor Zegras, signing him to a four-year contract worth an average annual value of $9.125 million.
Philadelphia Flyers forward Trevor Zegras (NHL Images).
Zegras, 25, enjoyed a career-best performance of 26 goals and 67 points last season, his first with the Flyers. He was coming off a three-year contract worth an AAV of $5.75 million.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: It’s a significant raise for Zegras, prompting some observers on social media to suggest the Flyers overpaid him.
That would’ve been the case had the Flyers not blown up the salary benchmark for talent by signing Anaheim Ducks center Leo Carlsson to a five-year offer sheet with a record-breaking, league-leading AAV of $18 million. While the Ducks matched the offer, the impact of the Carlsson contract has significantly changed the market for talented young players around the league.
Another factor is the significant rise in the salary cap from $95.5 million last season to $104 million this season. Had the cap risen marginally as it did earlier in the decade, the Flyers probably wouldn’t have made such an expensive pitch for Carlsson.
With the cap set for $113.5 million in 2027-28 and projected to reach $123 million in 2028-29, we’re entering an era where substantial pay raises will become the norm. A player considered overpaid in 2026-27 will be regarded as a frugal signing by 2028-29.
NJ HOCKEY NOW: The New Jersey Devils signed winger Anthony Mantha to a two-year contract with an AAV of $4.75 million.
Mantha, 31, is a big winger who had a career-best 33-goal, 64-point performance last season with the Pittsburgh Penguins.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: This is a cost-effective move by the Devils that should provide a boost to their offense over the next two seasons.
It was believed Mantha sought a long-term contract entering the free-agent market, but it’s apparent things have changed over the past two weeks, forcing him to accept a short-term contract.
THE WINNIPEG SUN: The Jets avoided salary arbitration with Cole Perfetti, inking the 25-year-old winger to a five-year contract worth an AAV of $6 million.
Perfetti had an injury-shortened season in 2025-26, netting 32 points in 68 games. However, he enjoyed a career-best 50-point performance in 2024-25.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Perfetti completed a two-year deal with an AAV of $3.25 million. Like Zegras, he’s getting a big raise that probably wouldn’t have been possible before the Carlsson offer sheet happened.
The Jets are betting that a healthy Perfetti will regain his form this season and exceed his career-best performance. If he does, this could become a worthwhile contract that will look better as the salary cap rises in the coming years.
CHGO BLACKHAWKS: Chris Chelios said he has spoken with Patrick Kane, who is an unrestricted free agent this summer. According to Chelios, the 37-year-old winger is deciding between signing with the Buffalo Sabres and returning to the Blackhawks.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Kane spent 16 seasons with the Blackhawks before joining the Detroit Red Wings for the past three years. It’ll be interesting to see if he opts to return to Chicago to finish his career or stay in his hometown and play for the Sabres.
NEW YORK POST: The Rangers signed prospect defenseman Alberts Smits to a three-year, entry-level contract. Smits, 18, was chosen fifth overall in the 2026 NHL Draft.
TORONTO SUN: The Maple Leafs named Jeremiah Crowe as their director of player personnel. Crowe is the former director of pro scouting for the Buffalo Sabres.
Looks like Mantha s agent read the market correctly and had him sign in a hurry. Injury history really hurt him. At that price not sure why Pittsburgh let him walk. Figured he would like to play with Crosby and Malkin a few more years.
So word in the Pittsburgh sports talk media is he told Pittsburgh he wouldn’t accept anything less than 3 years. So they said best of luck to you. Apparently nobody was going three years bud. Next time don’t phone it in in the playoffs.
Mantha has phoned it in most of his career. Big, talented guy that just doesn’t have that internal motor. Underachieved most of his career and had a great year last year when he had something to prove to stay relevant in the league. Wouldn’t touch him with a ten foot pole, and most of the league obviously agrees with that assessment.
His last long contract did not age well. The 4 x $5.7 million the Wings signed him to. he went from a 48 pt season to 38pt, then 21pt, to 8pt, and 23pt seasons.
He seems to get injured and lackadaisical.
Which makes one wonder, Johnny, how he is going to add offence.
I’m glad the Pens moved on from him. Frustratingly inconsistent player.
The Penguins need impact players who can score 30+ goals during the regular season, then score goals during the playoffs longer term.
Glad the oilers didnt or weren’t able to land Mantha. I was really concerned that they may offer longer term to land him but it seems Bowman may have learned something from recent ufa failures.
I am willing to sit on the cap space and wait. While I originally saw the lure of adding another top 6 winger (and that may be prudent – but might as well wait to see how Babcock deploys the forwards and how they respond) – we may want the cap space to improve the D as there are some solid questions on the back end.
Is Ekholm still able to deliver big minutes
Will Walman rebound after a terrible injury filled last season
Will Shea perform as well a he did in Pitts last season
Will we miss the physical presence and minutes that Nurse ate?
While we have 8 signed D, do we actually have depth that we need ( meaning can someone 5 though 8 play on 2nd pair for an extended period?)
I bet at least 1 of the above will need to be addressed at some point next season.
Nobody calls Pittsburgh “Pitts”
DMR -well maybe no else does any longer but I obviously do. Wasn’t uncommon to see it shortened as such growing up reading stats in newspapers and such.
Salaries are all based on percentages of cap. The max is 20%. . At a $113m Mcdavid will be line for somewhere around $20 m . So new contracts are going up , way up.
Very apparent the term current trend is much shorter for most extensions and signings
No way Mantha was getting more than two years. At his age and history
Zegras and perfetti seem like the same player one being paid $9M and the other $6M. Totally disagree that if the cap goes up every one deserves the same % they received of the previous cap. Agents have pulled another fast one over the owners. Owners need to set the market not agents. Teams will never improve if they have to continue the same players the same % of the cap.
Jeff, the owner of the Philadelphia Flyers set the market when he agreed to have Daniel Briere pitch that offer sheet to Carlsson. The owner of the Anaheim Ducks agreed to let general manager Pat Verbeek match that offer.
Carlsson’s new contract set the benchmark for the top talent. Combine that with a rapidly rising salary cap, and we’re going to see the salaries rise significantly over the next three years. And yes, it will be the owners who set the market value, just as they’ve always done. The salary cap has constricted their efforts, but it hasn’t stopped them.
Lyle, while a new high water mark does affect the market, I disagree that Briere’s offer sheet to Carlsson “set the market.”
When Kaprizov signed his 17 million contract, it was recognized that it was an outlier. McDavid signed for $12 million. Agents who point to Carlsson as the new comparison will quickly hear back from GMs that it too was an outlier, based on an offer sheet.
As with the well worn debated about whether non tax states have an advantage, sure, Carlsson’s salary is something to point to. But as has been argued here, other factors come into play, including the often mentioned rebuttal, a chance to win. Most recent example, Larkin. And of course, a rising cap lifts all contracts.
The offer influenced the market, and that’s not just semantics.
LJ, Kaprizov’s contract wasn’t an outlier, it was what was expected for a superstar forward. McDavid would’ve easily exceeded it because he’s the best player in the game. They were established talent and expected to get the highest AAV.
The Carlsson offer sheet set the market for rising young talent such as Carlsson, Celebrini, and Bedard that far surpassed what it was a year ago. It will also have a ripple effect for more established talent, as McDavid’s next AAV will be substantially higher.
Gotta side with Lyle on this one. Carlsson was coming out of his ELC and had one season where he approached a point/gm. Only leverage he had was an offer sheet and holding out.
Kaprisov has just completed his 5th straight season of more than a point/gm. He had 4 in a row when he signed. Proven to be a consistent producer over time.
If Carlsson want to sign a bridge deal to get him to arbitration at $10-$12M, he had every opportunity to then have the leverage of a proven guy and he may have got even more $.
That is how this should work and is fair IMO.
Briere screwed up, their owner let him. Hate to call him a fool, so will go with “in over his head”.
I keep repeating myself; if the other team has the space to match you have to pay such a stupid amount that they don’t match or all you do is drive prices up and damage relationships with other GM’s as you just pooped in all their cornflakes.
The same question I asked when he first did this and I was confident the Ducks match – What did Briere accomplish that helped the Flyers win?
That is his job after all.
There is a hard cap, if more and more $$ goes to the higher end guys, earlier, it leaves less for the rest, and the rest of the roster.
Carlsson just made it harder for the Ducks to compete in the short term. Impossible to lock up Gauthier long term as well without moving a good player first.
Jeff, just like you think two similar players being paid unequally or incorrectly in your example, other GMs will disagree with your assessment and know one is worth more than the other player and willing to pay more to insure they have said players…also, to no surprises, every agent that walked the face of the earth will say their client is the next coming no matter who it is when negotiating a contract.
It’s a big part of a GMs job is player evaluation and properly cut out the right portion (percentage) of cap to that player. Do they get it wrong? Hell yes! That’s what makes things interesting, right?
It may be the biggest part of a successful GM’s job is spending the last 7 or 8 million of the cap filling out the bottom six spots in the lineup…or perhaps squeezing out a little more for those spots. The players there are often more about how they fit with the team and whether they can fill a specific role. They are also often young as it’s hard to beat the value of a standard entry level deal. A bad fourth line and third pair can lose a lot of point during a season.
I think that is too much AAV for Zegras. He has been in the league six years, and his best year comes in a contract year when he scores 26 goals and 67 points. Add to that that is a career -48 in the +/- category, he isn’t a hitter, and he isn’t much on blocking shots. His career faceoff percentage is 39% which is really bad for a centerman. He also has gotten loads of powerplay time so he has had plenty of opportunity to add to his point totals. I would agree he can be a secondary asset on the offensive side, but he isn’t first line material for a cup contender, and after six years, and don’t think he has much runway left to get better. There is a high probability that over time his production will not match the team’s expectations and he gets traded out of Phily before this contract expires.