NHL Morning Coffee Headlines – July 2, 2026
Zach Werenski wants to stay in Columbus, the Lightning sign John Carlson, the Flyers re-sign Tyson Foerster, and more in today’s NHL Morning Coffee Headlines.
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH: Blue Jackets defenseman Zach Werenski and general manager Don Waddell released statements yesterday regarding the recent trade rumors swirling around the Norris Trophy-winning blueliner.
In their statements, both men claimed Werenski wants to remain in Columbus. Waddell indicated that he and the 28-year-old rearguard met this spring to discuss his uncertainty about his future and explore possible opportunities to move him. They agreed that if there were a deal to be made, Waddell would bring it to Werenski.
Columbus Blue Jackets defenseman Zach Werenski (NHL Images)
Waddell stated that they found a deal that would work for the club, referring to Tuesday night’s report of a trade that would’ve sent Werenski to the Dallas Stars. After taking time to discuss it with his family, the defenseman decided he wanted to remain in Columbus and used his no-movement clause to veto the trade.
Werenski said that he’d hoped this situation wouldn’t become a public issue, adding that everything got blown out of proportion. He stressed that he and his family love Columbus and he loves playing for the Blue Jackets, saying that he wants to win and wants to do so in Columbus.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Werenski’s rumored reluctance to sign one next summer was what started this situation in the first place. Neither he nor Waddell mentioned a contract extension in their statements.
Based on those statements, Werenski isn’t going anywhere this summer or this season. However, it’s worth noting that his full no-movement clause becomes a 10-team trade list next July 1, which is the earliest that he can sign an extension.
It’ll be interesting to see what effect this situation has on Kirill Marchenko’s reported unwillingness to sign an extension this summer. The 25-year-old winger is a year away from restricted free-agent status with arbitration rights and will be eligible for unrestricted free-agent status in July 2028, which is the same time that Werenski’s current contract expires.
Food for thought if the Blue Jackets fail to make the playoffs this season.
SPORTSNET: The Tampa Bay Lightning signed defenseman John Carlson to a two-year contract worth an average annual value of $8.5 million.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Carlson will replace the departed Darren Raddysh on the right side of the Lightning’s blueline. The length of the deal is reasonable for the 36-year-old defenseman, and he’s getting a slight pay bump over his previous $8 million AAV.
Carlson is coming off a 60-point performance with the Washington Capitals and Anaheim Ducks. However, he’s at the stage of his long career when a decline in performance is inevitable.
PHILLY HOCKEY NOW: The Flyers signed winger Tyson Foerster to an eight-year contract extension worth an AAV of $7.1 million beginning in 2027-28.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Foerster, 24, had back-to-back seasons with 20 or more goals in 2023-24 and 2024-25. An upper-body injury limited him to 29 games last season, but he still managed 13 goals and 17 points. The Flyers are banking on him continuing to develop into a reliable two-way top-six winger.
THE ATHLETIC: Arpon Basu reports Ivan Demidov’s contract extension means the Montreal Canadiens have their top four forwards (including Nick Suzuki, Cole Caufield, and Juraj Slafkovsky) and top four defensemen (Lane Hutson, Noah Dobson, Mike Matheson, and Kaiden Guhle) under contract through 2030 for under $63 million.
With those players taking less than market value, it’s now up to Canadiens management to use those savings to surround those core players with a solid supporting cast that will help them win.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: In case you missed it, Demidov inked an eight-year extension yesterday worth an AAV of $9.15 million. That could become a bargain for the Canadiens if he develops as expected.
Canadiens GM Kent Hughes and president of hockey operations Jeff Gorton did a tremendous job rebuilding the Canadiens over the past four years into a playoff team. How they build up the roster around those core players over the next four years will determine whether they’ll be a good team or a great one.
NEW JERSEY HOCKEY NOW: The Devils became the first team in this offseason to sign a player to an offer sheet, inking Utah Mammoth center Barrett Hayton to a one-year, $4.775 million offer.
The Mammoth will have seven days from the date of the signing to match the offer. If they don’t, they’ll receive the Devils’ 2027 second-round pick as compensation.
THE ATHLETIC: James Mirtle reports that the Devils had trade talks with the Mammoth for Hayton, but those discussions broke down.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: The twist here is that the Mammoth won’t be able to trade Hayton for one year if they match the Devils’ offer. That means they won’t be able to move him at the March trade deadline if they should become sellers by that point. They also won’t be able to peddle him during next year’s draft weekend.
TSN: The Seattle Kraken signed Mackie Samoskevich to a three-year contract worth an AAV of $3.85 million. They acquired the 23-year-old winger from the Florida Panthers last month for two draft picks.
KTNV’s Taylor Rocha reports that Vegas Golden Knights GM Kelly McCrimmon said defenseman Alex Pietrangelo has been placed on long-term injury reserve. He had to come off at the end of last season but was returned to LTIR on July 1. McCrimmon indicated that Pietrangelo’s status has not changed.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: In other words, any talk of Pietrangelo returning to action after missing all of last season due to a chronic hip injury can be put to rest. His playing career is over.
THE ATHLETIC: The Blue Jackets will reportedly add Don Granato as an assistant coach.
Rather sneaky move by the Devils with that Hayton offer sheet. I would have to say that the Devils and Hayton have an agreement that if the Mammoth do match, he’ll play out the year and sign with the Devils as a UFA next summer.
This puts Utah in a difficult spot. Should they match the offer and hope that they could convince Hayton to sign an extension before next July 1 at the risk of losing him for nothing? Or do they cut their losses and at least get a 2nd?
More GMs should use offer sheets…obviously a “good ol’ boys” agreement that they don’t use them to make things more difficult for their GM peers.
Totally agree DM. I mean, the provision was put there for a reason.
GMs naturally want to see their team win every game, especially in-Division, and feel little or not pity if they clobber an in-Division team while doing so.
So when they see that a rival GM has built himself into a tight cap situation, and one of his RFAs is a good one open to an offer-sheet, why in Hell would they hesitate in that regard?
Go for the jugular … it’s your job that’s on the line if your team doesn’t perform up to expectations – not the other guy’s – so do what you think it takes to solidify YOUR team and let him worry how to avoid losing one of his performing assets with the only return being future prospects!
Nuts to the “gentleman’s agreement.”
Pietrangelo was a stud. Good career albeit a little short.
Utah should take the second otherwise it will be nothing . .
Lightening signed Carlson for the same amount of money that that Raddysh received ?
I didn’t like the fact Hildeby is gone , he played well with the Leafs
The Marlie coach I wasn’t in favour of playing the Russian goalie all during the playoffs
I just like the upside with Hildeby
For 2 not 8. Virtually no risk with Carlson. Raddysh previous career high was 37 points and lots of risk in performance
The risk is that Tampa goes into the season with a 35, 36 and 37 year old top 4 D. As far as I can tell this is the oldest trio of D in the league.
How did that Russian goalie do in the playoffs ?
Y signs other teams cast offs just like he has done in previous summers. 🙄
Y also tells Minny he wants Boldy in Larkin trade. Just how belligerent can he be? Is he going to teach Boldy to be a center?? What C can he trade for now?? Dragging his feet just worsens the situation.
If I’m MIN I don’t trade Boldy for Larkin unless DET sweetens it a bit. And even then maybe not.
Yzerman did not say he wanted Boldy. One of the insiders said that was the only player they had of any value and if MN offered him Yzerman would take it. It’s like saying if someone offered me a BMW for my Ford Fiesta I would take it. It doesn’t mean I’m delusional enough to think that’s what my Ford is worth.
Maybe his plan was to get the best return for Larkin and the acquire Pettersson from the Canucks afterwards. Not perfect but an idea.
A Boldy for Larkin trade makes sense imo for the Wild. They dont have much else to offer of fair value that i think would entice the wings…imo. It sets them at center for years to come with Larkin/Ek and acquiring wingers, even good ones is easier getting a center.
Lyle hit the nail right on the head. The teams core players are all signed to team friendly deals. Now it’s up to Hughes and Gorton to add the pieces they will transform the team from a playoff team to a true Cup contender.
The Habs have four solid and true top 4 D-men, but only one is a right shot. They need another solid RD. Maybe Reinbacher or Pickford will be it but likely not yet.
Up front they have four top line forwards. Plus several depth forwards who could chip in 15G 35P a year. They need a second line center and a solid second line winger. Hage and Zharovsky may fill those roles but obviously not yet.
At this point it’s less likely that a top six forward will materialize from elsewhere. So once again Kapanen and Newhook will hopefully be able to remain healthy and step up to play with Demidov. At least until the prospects are ready.
Some players that are available and would be great complementary pieces.
Paul Cotter
Luke Kunin
Adam Erne
Those three embody Shero’s statement of “Take the shortest route to the puck carrier, and arrive in ill humor.”
Claude Giroux
Plays 16m/g, one of the best faceoff men in the league, good for 50 pts- fits on the 2nd line.
Charle-Edouard D’Astous
Plays L and R, gave the Habs fits in the playoffs.
Braden Schneider
NYR signed Pettersson and Durzi so they may be ready to move on from him like they did with Borgen.
Cotter signed somewhere I think
He did – with the Canucks – a one-year, $2.15 mill deal
You’re right , I was asleep at the wheel and in my opinion so were the habs
Hf30.lots of spare parts there! You do need low salaried players to plug and play!
Tampa adds Carlson: really rolling the dice with 3 35+ defencemen and a fourth Cernak, who has trouble getting to 60 games every year. “best” prospect may be Max Groschev, who has talent but is a converted forward with less than 100 AHL games on Defence. Vasy better be ready to repeat his Vezina…..and BrisBos still is probably a little short of what it will take to extend Kucherov unless there is a “home” town discount. No face off help added for the worst in the division. Not sure the Lightning don’t look like a team that’s hanging on for a last dance, but might need to retool at the trade deadline. The only plus to having three older D is that they have all been elite in their time and can perhaps be good for a year skating 16 minutes as Moser is available as a bona fide #1 minute eater. Bolts need a lot of breaks this year (tho as a fan I think the hockey gods owe us one after last year’s playoffs).
In keeping with Lyle’s cautionary observation on the Werenski situation, particularly his stating that “he and his family love Columbus and he loves playing for the Blue Jackets, saying that he wants to win and wants to do so in Columbus,” that is almost exactly word for word what we kept hearing from Tkachuk in Ottawa before he engineered his move to Florida.
LOL! I have to imagine that Werenski has been texting his teammates trying to put the fire out.
Is Larkin composing a similar text? Vegas even with Pieterangelo on LTIR has 0 cap space, Tampa 3 million, Florida less than 1 million. Sure, it’s July, but …
https://www.sportskeeda.com/us/nhl/news-i-wanna-play-win-here-old-brady-tkachuk-clip-resurfaces-senators-captain-s-shocking-trade-panthers
habfan 30 hilarious shero quote; those are the guys you want, lol.
IDK if I would make boldy for larkin trade either? That guy is a force to be reckoned with
and I wouldn’t want to trade that away despite larkin being a great skater, player, etc.
the cause of some of the chatter we get about players planning to move on via UFA (like Marcheko) is that it creates leverage for the agent to negotiate. It creates urgency that benefits the players next contract.
fans do what fans do and overreact to every piece of information they see. Agents and hopefully GMs see more than us, most of the time there is less merit to the rumours to justify our reactions than we think.
I am a Jets fan, see this every contract, every time for the past 13 years. Rinse and repeat.
I wonder who the Leafs will be playing in the semi final next year
The baby pens.