NHL Morning Coffee Headlines – July 21, 2025
The latest on Alex Ovechkin and Bowen Byram, Blues GM Doug Armstrong on why his club failed to repeat as Stanley Cup champions in 2020, and more in today’s NHL Morning Coffee Headlines.
THE HOCKEY NEWS: Alex Ovechkin told Russian media outlet RIA Novosti that he hasn’t had contract extension talks yet with the Washington Capitals.
Ovechkin, who turns 40 in September, is in the final season of his contract with the Capitals. He recently dismissed speculation that he’ll retire from the NHL following this season.
Washington Capitals captain Alex Ovechkin (NHL Images).
The Capitals captain isn’t concerned about the lack of extension talks. “A year will pass, we’ll think, we’ll wait, we’ll see,” he said.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Ovechkin is coming off a 44-goal performance despite missing 16 games with a fractured leg, setting the NHL’s all-time goal-scoring record. Another productive season could lead to a short-term extension with the Capitals.
NHL.COM: Bowen Byram is happy with his new contract with the Buffalo Sabres and is focused on his preparations for the regular season.
“Personally, I’ve been pretty happy with my time in Buffalo,” said the 24-year-old defenseman. “I think I’ve mentioned it before that I’ve got an opportunity to play a bigger role and play more minutes, whether it’s the offensive side, power play, penalty kill. So I’m happy with that.”
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Byram’s new contract silenced months of trade speculation. However, it could rekindle if the Sabres are once again out of playoff contention by the March trade deadline.
STLTODAY.COM: Blues general manager Doug Armstrong wonders if his team might’ve had a better chance at repeating as Stanley Cup champions if the COVID-19 pandemic hadn’t occurred in 2020.
The Blues were defending champions in 2019-20 and were second overall in the NHL standings when the pandemic forced the premature end of the regular season in March 2020. After months of uncertainty, an expanded version of the playoffs was held during the summer in quarantine conditions without fans in Edmonton and Toronto.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: It’s understandable why Armstrong wonders what might have been. The pandemic forced a long layoff for all the teams eventually selected to participate in the 2020 postseason under unusual conditions. Some clubs adjusted better than others.
We’ll never know if the Blues might’ve repeated had it been a normal season. I think the Tampa Bay Lightning still would’ve won the Cup. The Bolts were determined to atone for getting swept from the opening round the year before after winning the Presidents’ Trophy. They were second overall in the Eastern Conference when the 2019-20 regular season ended.
RG.ORG: Jeff Gorton, the Montreal Canadiens executive VP of hockey operations, expressed confidence in the quality of his club’s goaltending.
Gorton praised the performance of Sam Montembault, citing his solid play and consistency, especially down the stretch last season when every game was like a playoff game for the Canadiens. He also acknowledged the club’s plan is for backup Jakub Dobes or perhaps Kaapo Kahkonen to get more starts to give Montembeault more time to rest.
The Canadiens are also confident that prospect Jacob Fowler will earn more starts with their AHL affiliate in Laval this season. They were impressed with Fowler’s player after joining Laval late in the season.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Montembeault is a solid NHL starter, but was wearing down under a heavy workload by midseason until Dobes was called up. Having reliable goaltending depth will be crucial for the Canadiens if they intend to build on their promising effort from last season.
BOSTON HERALD: Defenseman Jordan Harris is hoping to catch on with the Bruins this season. The 25-year-old Massachusetts native became an unrestricted free agent after the Columbus Blue Jackets opted not to qualify his rights. He inked a one-year, $825,000 contract with the Bruins on July 1.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: A once-promising blueliner with the Canadiens, Harris was shipped to the Blues Jackets last August in the trade that sent winger Patrik Laine to Montreal. He saw action in 33 games with the Jackets last season.
The ECHL’s Rapid City Rush agreed to terms on a multi-year extension of their affiliation deal with the Calgary Flames and the AHL’s Calgary Wranglers.
RFA settlements have slowed to a proverbial crawl, with 23 spread over 17 teams remaining unsigned. 7 are awaiting arbitration (which process ends on August 4) and these show (FFA) after their name and cannot be offer-sheeted.
Each RFA shows their expired cap hit 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:
CHICAGO $21,412,024 – 21 (12F 7D 2G)
LD Wyatt Kaiser 6’ 175lbs 57gp 4g 4a 8pts $916,667; G Arvid Soderblom (FFA) 6’ 3” 180lbs 36hp 3.18gaa 0.898 save % $962,500
ANAHEIM $21,388,812 – 21 (11F 7D 3G)
C Mason McTavish 6’ 1” 220-lbs 76gp 22g 30a 52pts $894,167; RW/C Sam Colangelo 6’ 2” 210lbs 32gp 10g 2a 12pts $925,000
SAN JOSE $20,682,499 – 22 (12F 8D 2G)
RW/LW Danil Gushchin 5’ 8” 165lbs 12gp 0g 1a 1 point $828,334
COLUMBUS $16,342,501 – 22 (13F 7D 2G)
RW Mikael Pyyhtia 6’ 176lbs 47gp 4g 3a 7pts $897,500
CALGARY $15,412,500 – 22 (13F 7D 2G)
C Connor Zary 6’ 178lbs 564gp 13g 14a 27pts $863,334
SEATTLE $11,174,287 – 21 (13F 6D 2G)
RW Kaapo Kakko (FFA) 6’1” 215lbs 79gp (NYR & Sea) 14g 30a 44pts $2,400,000; LD Ryker Evans 6’ 195lbs 73gp 5g 20a 25pts $897,500
WINNIPEG $10,548,810 – 21 (12F 7D 2G)
LD Dylan Samberg (FFA) 6’ 4” 215lbs 60gp 6g 14a 20pts $1,400,000; C Rasmus Kupari 6’ 2” 200lbs 59gp 5g 3a 8pts $1,000,000 (has signed with a team in Switzerland’s National League – Wpg still holds his NHL rights)
MINNESOTA $10,186,835 – 21 (13F 6D 2G)
C Marco Rossi 5’ 9” 182lbs 82gp 24g 36a 60pts $863,334
NASHVILLE $10,116,039 – 21 (11F 8D 2G)
RW Luke Evangelista 6” 183lbs 68gp 10g 22a 32pts $797,500
BUFFALO $7,390,319 – 22 (13F 7D 2G)
G Devon Levi 6’ 192lbs 9gp 4.12gaa 0.872 save % $925,000; RD Connor Timmins (FFA) 6’ 3” 215lbs 68gp 3g 12a 15pts (Tor & Pitt) $1,100,000
NEW JERSEY $6,906,667 – 22 (13F 7D 2G)
LD Luke Hughes 6’ 2” 200lbs 71gp 7g 37a 44pts $925,000; C/W Thomas Bordeleau 5’ 10” 180lbs 1gp with San Jose 0pts $874,125
LOS ANGELES $6,768,333 – 22 (12F 8D 2G)
RW Alex Laferriere 6’ 1” 205lbs 77gp 19g 23a 42pts $875,000
OTTAWA $4,294,286 – 22 – (13F 7D 2G) LD Donovan Sebrango 6’ 2” 220lbs 2gp 0pts
NEW YORK ISLANDERS $3,875,000 – 23 (14F 6D 3G)
W Maxim Tsyplakov (FFA) 6’ 3” 210pts 77gp 10g 25a 35pts $950,000
TORONTO $2,933,081 – 23 (14F 7D 2G)
LW/RW Nicholas Robertson (FFA) 5’ 9” 180lbs 69gp 15g 7a 22pts $875,000
MONTREAL OVER BY $4,519,167 – 22 (14F 6D 2G)
LD Jayden Struble (FFA) 6’ 207lbs 56gp 2g 11a 13pts $867,500
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 situation for the 15 teams with no RFAs left to sign – most to least:
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)
WASHINGTON $4,125,000 – 23 (13F 8D 2G)
COLORADO $4,123,333 – 21 (12F 7D 2G)
VANCOUVER $3,270,000 – 22 (13F 7D 2G)
BOSTON $2,081,667 – 23 (14F 7D 2G)
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)
Another site headlined its story on Byram by stating that he sees advantages in playing in Buffalo. I guess one would be an extra two months summer vacation.
Cheeky, Howard. And funny.
I join HF30 in wishing Harris well, even with the poxy Bruins. Good young man,
Jordan Harris is one of those guys you root for and hope he makes it….even if he’s a Bruin.
Good in the locker room and great in the community.
He’s smart, good skater, high hockey IQ, who got caught in the numbers game in Montreal. Too many LD and too many cast in the same mold, quick finesse players.
He played on the R side in an attempt to keep him but there were/are young RD with size in the pipeline.
The opportunity to get Laine and a 2nd round pick made him expendable.
Boston fans, if you want a physical D-man, he’s not your guy, if you appreciate speed, good active stick and no brain cramps, you’ll like this kid.
Habfan30,thanks for the scouting report on Harris. I just hope heis a little bigger than Grezlyk. Sounds like a similar skill set.
Apparently, in order for Columbus to qualify him, the amount would have to have been $1.4 mil.
With 4 LD on their roster (Werenski, Provorov, Christiansen and Mateychuk), and even with just 41 of the allowable 50 contracts, and $16,342,501 in cap reserve and only RFA RW Mikael Pyyhtia still to re-up, it looks like Harris got caught in the numbers game there as well.
The Blues where 2-0 in the Regular Season vs Tampa, having won 3-1 and 4-3.
IMO, JBo nearly dying on the bench in Anaheim, had the largest affect on the Blues that season.
The Playoff Seeding was an absolute joke. The Blues were 7-2-2 vs Colorado, Vegas, and Dallas during the Regular Season, which the NHL completely disregarded. Inviting 24 Teams to the Playoff was another ridiculous situation. The NHL made sure to get all but 1 Canadian Team and all but 1 original 6 Team in the Field.
However the NHL had nothing to do with Alex Pietrangelo showing up to the Bubble completely out of shape and totally unprepared to play hockey. Guy was an absolute disaster int he Bubble, and already knew Vegas was going to make him a rich man, something else the NHL totally disregarded.
Brian, just to clarify you’re suggesting the NHL expanded the field to 24 teams to ensure all but 1 Canadian teams got in and all but but 1 original 6 team got in?
Based on what?
Do you think, just maybe, that they expanded the field because the regular season had not yet concluded and it wouldn’t be fair to the teams that had a shot at getting in to be excluded?
The teams and NHLPA agreed to it also, so if there was some grand conspiracy, I guess they were in on it too.
Ray its pretty well documented that the only reason the NHLPA agreed to the expanded format, was the long term threat by the owners in the CBA Negotiation’s as well as the Escrow situation.
Nearly 86% of the regular season had been played, if the NHL or NHLPA would have been worried about being fair, to the Team that “Could” have made it, wouldnt Buffalo and New Jersey have been in the field? Both had played 2 less games then Montreal, and where trailing them by 2 points. Montreal was sitting at 71 points after 71 games played. You really think they where going to pass the 6 Teams in front of them, and all 6 had games in hand on Montreal.
Then the NHL really out did themselves by that sham of a 2 phase lottery for the draft. Absolute joke. It was very clear that the NHL crafted the bubble and the draft to protect the majority of the Original 6 and Teams from Canada.
Did I think MTL would actually, pass all those teams? No. That would be an anomaly. They had to draw a line somewhere for the playoffs, play in qualifier, seeding, whatever you want to call it. It also had to be a # that could easily work to get to 16 for the actual playoffs.
Same reason the NCAA tourney is 64 teams and not 63 or 62.
It was not an ideal situation, the NHL didn’t cause it, they simply dealt with it the best they could. Could you have done it better? I suppose, let’s hear the plan you suggest.
What well documented threats regarding CBA negotiations? Please share.
Still don’t see any link or evidence to show favoring of CDN or original 6 teams? Kindly enlighten us.
This is how it worked for a refresher:
Round Robin: The top 4 teams play for First Round seeding (regular-season overtime rules in effect)
• Qualifying Round: The remaining 8 teams play best-of-5 series to advance to the First Round (playoff overtime rules in effect)
• First Round and Second Round: Format (seeding vs. bracket) and series lengths will be best-of-seven.
• Conference Finals and Stanley Cup Final: Best-of-7 series will take place at Rogers Place in Edmonton.
Slow day, so my contribution will be to opine that time has finally caught up to Ovechkin.
His high level of consistently good scoring late into his thirties has been very impressive, but it looked to me that he was spent by the end of last season once he caught Gretzky. He looked slow and one dimensional in the playoffs, and did nothing against the ‘Canes in the second round.
I expect this will be more apparent during the 84 game schedule, leading to him retiring at the end of the season.
Great career, great accomplishment with the scoring record, time now to walk away from the game before, as Nick Lidstrom once said, before the game walks away from him.
Ray there was no need to have 24 Teams, none. The NCAA Tourn is 68 Teams, not 64, with 2 play in games, and that is exactly what should have happened. However the Owners wanted to drum up more revenue, from the Bubble Games, thus they added the extra teams. You could have easily used the Regular Season Standings and played 2 play in games in each conf between 7/10 and 8/9. One game to get into the playoffs, then started a standard regular playoff format.
The Draft was equally ridiculous.
When is the last time a Team made the playoffs and picked #1 as the Rangers did in 2020. Winnipeg made the playoffs and picked 10th, Minnesota picked 9th. You had Teams win playoff rounds, get rewarded HIGHER draft positions then Teams that lost early. How is that even possible?
There was clearly some shenanigans at play, and I get it, the league absolutely needed the revenue. However it was done piss poor. As a Blues fan I am old enough to remember the NHL cracking down on the Blues for tampering and taking away 7 first round picks plus Scott Stevens, and the league did ZERO to Vegas for contacting Petro before he became a UFA.
But has taken a 1st round pick from Ottawa because of a clerical error in the trade of Dadonov to poor, mistreated Vegas who discovered the trade clause when they later tried to peddle him to Anaheim.
BS supreme.