Welcome to the first full week of July, and the NHL’s summer chaos train kept rolling right through the holiday weekend.
The league has already seen signings, trade chatter, arbitration, and even an offer sheet, and the Anaheim Ducks found themselves right in the middle of it. Philadelphia signed restricted free agent center Leo Carlsson to a five-year, $18 million AAV offer sheet, a move that immediately put pressure on Anaheim. Then came the weekend buzz that another team was lining up an offer sheet for Ducks defenseman Pavel Mintyukov, who is also a restricted free agent.
Anaheim has not yet officially matched or declined the Carlsson offer, but the Ducks did move fast on Sunday to extend Mintyukov and remove that decision from the board. The expectation is that they’ll match the Carlsson deal and keep him in Anaheim, but the bigger picture is clear: the Ducks have been targeted hard in a matter of days.
Elliotte Friedman said the situation reflects a broader shift around the league.
That might be the biggest change. Teams believed that, at this point in a player’s career, they had the hammer.
That’s no longer the case. Now, it is: “What happened to Anaheim cannot happen to us.”
No word yet on whether or not Danny Briere and Pat Verbeek will be fighting in a barn due to the offer sheet.
There was also Bruins-related noise over the weekend, with rumblings that Boston and Edmonton had been moving toward a deal that would send defenseman Darnell Nurse to the Bruins before a Boston player reportedly declined to go to Edmonton.
Some Oilers “insiders” said the player who blocked the move was Nikita Zadorov, but from the Bruins’ side, that swap doesn’t look like much of an upgrade. Zadorov has been relatively good since signing in Boston, and moving him for Nurse would not seem like a major step forward.
Others pointed to Hampus Lindholm, while some suggested the whole thing never got close in the first place.
So either it almost happened, it didn’t almost happen, or it might have almost maybe come close to happening. Either way, there’s no deal.
In Other News...
Bruins Linked To Another Risky Center Swing Fans Will Debate
Bostons search for a top-six center is still very much alive after the club already sent away its first-round pick to land JJ Peterka, and that has kept the focus on younger, high-upside names who could grow with the rest of the roster. Shane Wright is one of the more intriguing possibilities in that conversation, mostly because he still carries the sheen of a former No. 4 overall pick even as his NHL path has been anything but linear.
The appeal is obvious for a Bruins team trying to add skill without losing sight of the future, but Wrights uneven development is exactly why this kind of swing would spark debate. Boston has been weighing whether another bet on upside is the right move alongside Peterka and the other younger pieces already in place, and any serious pursuit would likely require a hefty price to make Seattle listen. [Read more 🡒]
Bruins Blue Line Squeeze Has Put Another Sweeney Move In Play
The Bruins spent part of the offseason reinforcing the blue line, bringing back Connor Clifton and adding Will Borgen to a group that already had plenty of bodies in the mix. Its the kind of accumulation that can look like depth on paper and like a roster puzzle in practice, especially with training camp approaching and spots becoming harder to sort out.
For Don Sweeney, the challenge now is turning that surplus into the right balance for the coming season. One recent development could help on that front: Jokiharjus gold-medal run at the IIHF World Championship has only sharpened the sense that he could carry real value if Boston decides to keep reshaping its defense. [Read more 🡒]
Bruins Offseason Still Feels Incomplete For One Frustrating Reason
Don Sweeney has been busy trying to reshape the Bruins roster, starting with the splashy addition of JJ Peterka from the Utah Mammoth at the cost of two first-round picks. Boston also moved to shore up the blue line by bringing in Will Borgen from the New York Rangers, and it added Connor Clifton as another defense option, giving the front office a few more pieces to work with as the offseason rolls on.
Even with those moves, the work still does not feel finished. The Bruins continue to look short on defense and still need help at top-six center, which is why the overall summer has drawn a mixed review from around the league. Bleacher Reports Sara Civian called it a wanting offseason, and the bigger question now is whether Boston can find the kind of high-end blue-line help it still appears to need to stay in the mix. [Read more 🡒]