NHL Hockey Player News

Bonino has one-year left at $4.1M AAV and address a major need at centre for the 2020-21 campaign. Bonino is a solid player but his his offensive output is capped. In three years with Nashville, Bonino averaged 18 goals and 18 assists (36 points) per 82 games. He'll likely centre the third line in Minnesota.

Kunin is a pending RFA, who is projected to sign a contract in the range of $3.25M AAV, which would be $850K savings from Nick Bonino's $4.1M AAV cap hit. Kunin is coming off of the best season of his young career, scoring 15 goals with 16 assists (31 points) in 63 games and has even more upside in Nashville, where he'll be surrounded by more top-end talent.

Not to be mistaken with the Las Vegas Raiders head coach, Jonathan Gruden was selected in the fourth-round (No.95 overall) in 2018. The 6-foot, 180 lbs. centre moved from Miami (Ohio) University to the London Knights (OHL) for the 2020 season, where he was second on the team in goals (30) and fourth in points (66) in 59 games.

The Penguins made their decision in net when they locked up Tristan Jarry last week. With so many free agent goalies becoming available on Friday it was a priority to get this trade done before then to maximize Murray's value. He is coming off of a down year, having posted a 2.87 GAA and .899 SV% in 38 starts but Murray is a huge upgrade in net for the Senators, who have improved drastically over the last 24 hours.

Stephens was a second-round pick (No.33 overall) in 2015 and graduated to the NHL in 2020. The 23-year-old centre had 10 points (5G / 5A) in 24 AHL games before getting promoted and picking up six points (3G / 3A) in 38 games in Tampa. He appeared in seven playoff games, scoring one goal en route to getting his name on the Stanley Cup.

DeMelo was set to become a UFA on Friday but the Jets have locked him up through the 2024 season at $3.0M. This is a fair price for a defenseman, who is a pretty good offensive play driver who is also rock solid in his own end. DeMelo had 10 assists, 105 hits and 77 blocked shots in 59 games between the Senators and Jets last season.

Kempny had surgery for a torn hamstring in 2019 and struggled through most of 2020 and will now most, if not all of 2021 after suffering a torn Achilles’ tendon while training in the Czech Republic. After finding out about Kempny's injury, the Capitals re-signed Brendan Dillon to a four-year extension. Dillon filled in for Kempny next to John Carlson on the top-pair last year.

Dillon, 29, was acquired from the Sharks for second and third round draft picks last February and appeared in 10 regular season and eight playoff games with Washington. He picked up just one assist, 42 hits and 26 blocked shots in a Capitals uniform. With Michal Kempny out for 6-to-8 months, the Capitals were quick to re-sign the 6-foot-4, 225 lbs. defenseman.

MacEwen split his 2020 campaign between the AHL and NHL, recording 11 points (5G / 6A) in 20 games with Utica and six points (5G / 1A) in 17 games with Vancouver. MacEwen is a big winger (6-foot-4, 211 lbs) who posted excellent numbers at lower-levels and should be a bottom-6 player for the Canucks in 2021.

Anderson dealt with shoulder issues all throughout 2020, limiting him to just 26 games and four points (1G / 3A). In 2019, Anderson scored a career-high 27 goals with 20 assists (47 points) in 82 games. He was one of three players who had 20-plus goals and 200-plus hits in 2019--Alex Ovechkin and Blake Coleman were the other two, pretty good company. Anderson's rugged style of play is exactly what the Habs were in search of and he will pair nicely on the second line with Nick Suzuki.

Domi is coming off of a bit of a down year, scoring just 17 goals with 27 assists (44 points) in 71 games. That's down from his 28 goals and 44 assists in his debut season with Montreal but still would have been second on the Blue Jackets in points in 2020. Domi is exactly the type of player the Blue Jackets were in need of and pushes Boone Jenner to a third-line centre role, which is a much better fit for him. The acquisition of Domi, who will likely skate on a line with Gustav Nyquist and Cam Atkinson, signals that the Blue Jackets are likely done with Alexander Wennberg.

Abdelkader had three years left at $4.25M AAV. Buying him out will cost the Red Wings $1.8M AAV in 2021 ($2.4M Savings), $2.3M AAV in 2022 ($1.95M Savings) and $1.06M AAV from 2023 to 2025. Over the last two seasons (Min.120 games played) Abdelkader had the second-fewest points (22) among forwards in the NHL.

Alzner had two years left at a $4.625M AAV cap hit. Buying him out will cost the Canadiens $3.96M AAV in 2021 ($667K Savings), $1.96M AAV in 2022 ($2.67M Savings) and $883K AAV in 2023 and 2024. Alzner spent most of 2020 in the AHL, where he had one goal and 12 assists in 53 games.

Aho, 24, spent all of 2020 in the AHL, where he led all Bridgeport defensemen with 30 points (3G / 27A) in 49 games. Aho is undersized (5-11, 177) but he's a terrific puck-mover and is not afraid to jump into the rush to create offence. He is a candidate to graduate to the NHL in 2021 but he's blocked by a bunch of high-paid veteran defensemen on the depth chart.

Thompson missed most of the 2020 season with a shoulder issue, which required surgery in mid-January. He had six goals and six assists (12 points) in 16 games with Rochester (AHL) and only appeared in one game with the Sabres. Since being selected No.26 overall in 2016, Thompson has just 10 goals and 11 assists (21 points) in 107 career NHL games.

Dubnyk struggled mightily in 2020, going 12-15-2 with a 3.35 GAA and .890 SV% in 30 games. San Jose is taking a low-cost, low-risk flier on a 34-year-old, who had a 2.41 GAA and .918 SV% in the four seasons prior to 2020. The Wild are retaining the maximum of half of Dubnyk's salary, so he'll cost them $2.17M AAV against the cap next season.

Niskanen had one-year left on his seven-year deal that carried a $5.75M AAV cap hit. Niskanen was going to be 34-years-old in December but decided to call it a career after 13 years in the NHL. He totalled 72 goals and 284 assists (356 points) in 949 career NHL games with the Stars, Penguins, Capitals and Flyers.

The Flyers were likely going to let Braun walk in free agency but with the surprising news that Matt Niskanen is retiring, they got to work on re-signing Braun. The 33-year-old scored three goals with 16 assists (19 points) in 62 games while ranking third among Flyers' defensemen in hits (91) and tied for second in blocked shots (84).

Johnson had three years left with a $3.25M cap hit but is now an unrestricted free agent hoping for one last chance. Johnson's buyout will cost the Penguins $1.17M agains the cap for the next two years, $1.92M in 2023 and $916K AAV from 2024-to-2026 (per PuckPedia). In 2020, Johnson had 11 points (3G / 8A), 183 hits and 97 blocked shots in 67 games.

In his first full season in the NHL, Soucy produced seven goals and seven assists (14 points) in 55 games. The 6-foot-4 defenseman has never been a big point producer, so that 21-point per 82-game pace is probably close to his ceiling moving forward. He can play a physical brand of hockey though, ranking second among Wild defensemen in Hits/60 (4.81).