With NHL training camps starting this week, there was a mad dash to get players signed to new deals before the clock struck midnight to ring in the beginning of the new CBA.
Caps Lock In Young Guns
On Tuesday, the Washington Capitals signed their two potential restricted free agents for next summer to 8-year contracts. First, the Capitals announced that they signed forward Ryan Leonard to an 8-year deal worth $84 million and carries an AAV of $10.5 million per season.
For Leonard, 22, this is a solid contract for him and the Caps. With a rising salary cap, and teams showing more willingness to use offer sheets on RFAs the last few summers, locking up Leonard before next summer was a priority.
Leonard still has a very high ceiling and was starting to hit his stride at the NHL level before a Jacob Trouba hit to the head took Leonard out of the lineup for a period of time.
“We are extremely excited to sign Ryan to a long-term contract with our club,” Capitals general manager Chris Patrick said in a release. “Ryan is a young and talented player who is still years away from entering his prime, and we believe he has tremendous potential to continue growing into an important player for our organization.
“While reaching his full potential will take time, we have been impressed with his work ethic and the way he continues to develop his game. We are confident in Ryan’s ability to continue improving as a hockey player, and we believe this agreement provides him with the opportunity to grow and develop within our organization while giving us the ability to keep a talented young player in our lineup for years to come.”
Next up for the Caps was signing forward Justin Sourdif to a new 8-year contract worth $50.8 million and carries an AAV of $6.35 million per season. Sourdif, 24, showed a lot of great potential during his rookie season, and was utilized throughout the lineup when injuries plagued the team.
“Justin is a good young forward who has continued to develop steadily throughout his career. He is versatile and demonstrated his ability to play an important forward role for our team whenever the opportunity arose last season,” said Patrick. “We are thrilled to sign him to a long-term contract and look forward to seeing him continue to elevate his game alongside our veteran core and our young group of players. We believe he has a bright future ahead of him and are confident that he will continue to make valuable contributions to our organization in the coming years.”
More Notable Signings
Around the NHL we would see some more notable signings take place before the new CBA kick in starting with a big one in Ottawa as the Senators would re-sign forward Drake Batherson to an 8-year contract that’ll carry an AAV of $10.75 million.
For the Senators, this was an important signing after trading Brady Tkachuk to the Florida Panthers. It said to the fan base that they were still serious about being contenders and h3 Btherson signing was proof that Ottawa is a place players wants to be.
Staying in Canada and the Atlantic Division, the Montreal Canadiens made a pair of signings as they would first sign defenseman Arber Xhekaj to a one-year contract worth $1.5 million. Then the Canadiens would sign pending restricted free agent forward Alex Newhook to a 4-year contract that’ll carry an AAV of $5.5 million per season.
Then in Anaheim, all eyes were on the Ducks and if they would sign restricted free agent forward Cutter Gauthier to a new deal before the new CBA kicked in. That they would as te Ducks would sign Gauhier to a 6-year deal carrying an AAV of $13.5 million per season.
For the Ducks getting this signing completed was huge, and even more surprising as many thought this would be an 8-year deal, but getting Gauthier at 6 years was very interesting to see. With the limited cap space the Ducks have, they mad it work.
Lastly, in the Metropolitan Division, the Carolina Hurricanes would re-sign their captain Jordan Staal to a one-year bonus laden contract that’ll be for the 2027-28 season, and in New Jersey the Devils would sign recently acquired forward Luke Evangelista to a 5-year contract.
Other News and Notes
In Chicago, the Blackhawks named Conor Bedard the 37th captain in franchise history.
In Minnesota, the Wild signed head coach John Hynes to a multi-year contract extension.
Lastly, in Detroit the Red Wings announced that they have named Shawn Horcoff the interim general manager while they continue their search for their new general manager.
The move in Detroit is a real head scratcher as no one has envisioned the Wings general manager search to go on this long, especially given how restricted free agent Simon Edvinsson needs a new contract and current ongoing situation surrounding Dylan Larkin.
With training camps starting now, things are getting very interesting and will be fun to see how things fold out before the regular season begins on September 29th.