NHL Morning Coffee Headlines – June 20, 2019
NHL Morning Coffee Headlines – June 20, 2019
The winners of the 2019 NHL Awards, plus updates on Roberto Luongo, Alex Edler, and more in today’s NHL morning coffee headlines.
NHL.COM: Tampa Bay Lightning right wing Nikita Kucherov won the Hart Memorial Trophy and the Ted Lindsay Award at the 2019 NHL Awards. Teammate Andrei Vasilevskiy won the Vezina Trophy as the league’s top goaltender.

Tampa Bay Lightning winger Nikita Kucherov won the Hart Trophy and Ted Lindsay Award at the 2019 NHL Awards (Photo via NHL Images).
Mark Giordano became the first defenseman in Calgary Flames history to win the James Norris Memorial Trophy. Vancouver Canucks rookie center Elias Pettersson took home the Calder Memorial Trophy. St. Louis Blues center Ryan O’Reilly won the Frank J. Selke Trophy as the top defensive forward.
Florida Panthers center Aleksander Barkov was the winner of the Lady Byng Memorial Trophy. New York Islanders goaltender Robin Lehner won the Bill Masterton Trophy.
Islanders head coach Barry Trotz won the second Jacks Adams Award of his career. Boston Bruins general manager Don Sweeney took home the GM of the Year Award.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: You can see the complete list of winners by clicking the link above. Congratulations to all the winners and their fellow nominees. All were deserving of recognition for their efforts this season.
The league also announced the Montreal Canadiens will host the 2020 NHL Draft.
TORONTO STAR: Maple Leafs center Auston Matthews is the cover boy for EA Sports’ video game NHL 20.
TSN: Goaltender Roberto Luongo intends to inform the Florida Panthers of his plans within the next several days. He could return for another season, retire, or go on long-term injury reserve with a lingering hip injury.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: If Luongo retires, the Vancouver Canucks will be hit with the bulk of the salary-cap recapture penalty. That’ll be over $2.8 million per season for each of the remaining three seasons of his contract. The Panthers would be hit with $1.2 million per season.
VANCOUVER SUN: Various reports last night suggested the Canucks were closing in on a three- or four-year contract extension with defenseman Alex Edler. Canucks GM Jim Benning, however, said the two sides were still working on a deal, calling the reports a “bad scoop.” Edler’s agent declined to comment. The blueliner is slated to become an unrestricted free agent on July 1.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: A couple of days ago, most of the Edler reports made it appear he was destined to hit the UFA market. Just goes to show how quickly things can change in contract talks.
LOS ANGELES DAILY NEWS: As noted yesterday in the Rumors section. the Anaheim Ducks bought out the final two years of winger Corey Perry’s contract.
OTTAWA SUN: The Senators re-signed goaltender Marcus Hogberg to a two-year contract.
ARIZONA SPORTS: The NHL Board of Governors approved the sale of the Arizona Coyotes to businessman Alex Meruelo.
STLTODAY.COM: “The 16-person ownership group led by Blues chairman Tom Stillman completed its acquisition of the minority interest in the team previously held by Sports Capital Holdings.”
There is an expectation it will be between $81.5M and $82.1M https://t.co/7AaGrB2mJt
— Elliotte Friedman (@FriedgeHNIC) June 19, 2019