Why Bruins should pursue Nikolaj Ehlers on Day 1 of NHL free agency originally appeared on NBC Sports Boston

The Boston Bruins have taken care of most of their own free agents, including a flurry of new contracts over the last couple days.

The most notable deal was a six-year, $33 million contract for restricted free agent forward Morgan Geekie. Finding common ground with Geekie was important for the Bruins considering their lack of scoring depth. Geekie scored 33 goals last season — the second-most on the B’s behind David Pastrnak.

But the Bruins aren’t going to significantly improve offensively on internal development alone. Outside reinforcements are needed. The trade market is the best place for the Bruins to acquire a top-six forward. And the Bruins have several good prospects and future draft picks to dangle in potential trades.

The 2025 free agent class isn’t very strong — especially with Mitch Marner and Brad Marchand already off the board — but there are some impact forwards worth targeting, and one that fits what the Bruins need is Nikolaj Ehlers.

He was the Winnipeg Jets’ first-round pick in 2014 (No. 9 overall) and has played for them ever since.

The 29-year-old left wing has been one of the most consistent goal scorers in the league during his Jets career. He has tallied 20-plus goals in seven of the last nine seasons, and the two years he didn’t were 2020-21 (COVID-shortened year) and 2022-23 (missed a bunch of games due to injury).

Ehlers tallied 63 points (24 goals, 39 assists) in 69 games last season.

He was fantastic on the power play, too, posting six goals and 16 assists with the man advantage. He would be a nice addition to the Bruins’ power-play, which ranked 29th out of 32 teams with a 15.2 percent success rate in 2024-25.

Ehlers is more than a goal scorer. He’s a pretty good playmaker, too. He has tallied 30-plus assists five times, including each of the last two seasons. The Bruins don’t have any elite playmaking centers, so it would help to have wingers capable of consistently creating scoring chances for teammates. Ehlers fits that description.

One concern with Ehlers is durability. He missed 20 games in 2021-22, 37 games in 2022-23, none in 2023-24 and 13 games last season.

Signing him could use up most of the Bruins’ remaining salary cap space. The Bruins have about $12.7 million in cap space right now, per PuckPedia, and The Athletic projects Ehlers could get a contract in the range of six years and $8.1 million per season.

Ehlers is a legitimate top-six forward in the prime of his career. If the Bruins want to get back in the playoff mix as soon as next season, it would make sense to pursue Ehlers when the free agent market opens Tuesday at noon ET.

The Vancouver Canucks have re-signed center Aatu Räty to a two-year contract extension. The deal will carry an AAV of $775,000 and will keep the 22-year-old in Vancouver until the end of the 2026-27 season. Räty was scheduled to become a restricted free agent after wrapping up his entry-level contract. 

In a statement, GM Patrik Allvin wrote, "Aatu had a strong year in Abbotsford and also showed some promise when being called up to the NHL. It was another good step in his development as he continues to learn and grow as a pro. We expect him to have a good summer and come to training camp in September ready to compete for a job in Vancouver."

Räty set a new career high this season with 33 games played at the NHL level. The left-shot center scored seven goals while recording 11 points. Räty was also strong in the faceoff dot, winning 57.7% of his draws. 

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As for his time in the AHL, Räty played 43 regular season games with the Abbotsford Canucks recording 40 points. He also played six games in the post-season before suffering an injury. Räty will be competing for a full-time spot on the NHL roster and is a front-runner for a spot in the bottom six. 

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The Vancouver Canucks have re-signed BC local Arshdeep Bains to a two-year contract that will keep him within the organization until the end of the 2026-27 season. According to PuckPedia, both years of the deal will pay $775,000. 

“Arshdeep had another solid season in Abbotsford as he continues to develop and mature,” said Canucks General Manager Patrik Allvin in a statement. “His game found another gear late in the AHL playoffs when he stepped up and helped lead the way offensively with several big goals. Arsh is now familiar with our system and style of play, and we expect him to push hard for a spot in September.”

Bains was first acquired by the Canucks back in 2022 after Vancouver signed him to a three-year entry-level contract. He played 13 games with Vancouver in the 2024-25 season and made his NHL debut the season prior against the Colorado Avalanche. He scored his first NHL goal against the Pittsburgh Penguins on October 26, 2024. 

Throughout this season, Bains has made a mark as one of the Abbotsford Canucks' most consistent forwards both offensively and defensively. He led Abbotsford in points during the 2024-25 regular season, scoring 11 goals and 32 assists in 50 games played. In the team's Calder Cup campaign, he finished second in scoring with seven goals and 17 assists in 24 games. All seven of his postseason tallies came within the final eight games of the playoffs. 

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Bains is not the only member of the Calder Cup-winning Abbotsford team to receive a new deal, as Max Sasson, Guillaume Brisebois, and Aatu Räty also agreed on extensions today. 

Make sure you bookmark THN's Vancouver Canucks site and add us to your favourites on Google News for the latest news, exclusive interviews, breakdowns, and so much more. Also, be sure to leave a comment at the bottom of the page and engage with other passionate fans through our forum.

The Toronto Maple Leafs have acquired Matias Maccelli from the Utah Mammoth in exchange for a conditional third-round draft pick in 2027, which will convert to a second-round draft pick in 2029 if Maccelli record at least 51 points in the 2025-26 NHL season.

The 5-foot-11 winger had eight goals and 10 assists in 55 games last season. He’s a play-maker who broke out into the NHL in 2022-23 when he led all rookies in assists. He also received Calder Trophy consideration and ultimately landed on the NHL’s all-rookie team that same season.

In acquiring Maccelli, the Leafs are betting that they are buying low on a season that saw the Finnish player have a dip in production. Some of that was attributed to dips in production from his linemates. If paired with elite talent in Toronto, there is certainly potential for the player to see a rebound next year. A deeper dive into the analytics of his season showed a player where contributed 1.78 shot assists above average per 60 while leading the NHL in generating chances off the rush. 

Other critics of Maccelli's style focus on his play away from his puck, which could use some improvement. It's believed the lack of hard-nosed physical play led to him falling out of Utah's top-six forward group and that will be something he will need to get better at under Craig Berube, who demands a hard-nosed, heavy north-south game.  But with a skilled player like Mitch Marner seemingly on his way out of Toronto, a play-making winger was needed. He isn't Marner, but there was a good reason for Toronto to give this a shot, given the low cost.

The 24-year-old Maccelli carries a salary cap hit of $3,425,000 for next season. After that, the player will be a restricted free agent.

Macccell first exhibited his skillset when he moved to the United States to play in the USHL beginning in 2017. In his second season, he scored 31 goals and 41 assists in 62 games. The Arizona Coyotes selected him in the fourth round (98th overall) in the 2019 NHL Draft.

In his first season in professional hockey, he scored 13 goals and 27 assists in 43 games with Ilves Tampere, winning the Liiga rookie of the year award. The Coyotes subsequently signed him to a three-year entry-level contract at the end of that season 2019-20 season.

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After acquiring Maccelli, the Leafs have $10,145,581 in salary cap space, according to PuckPedia.com as they get set to enter the feee agency period, which opens at noon E.T. on July 1.

(Headline Photo Credit: Rob Gray-Imagn Images)

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The Vegas Golden Knights have traded defenseman Nicolas Hague and a conditional third-round pick in the 2027 NHL Entry Draft to the Nashville Predators in exchange for Jeremy Lauzon and Colton Sissons. 

🔄 The Vegas Golden Knights have acquired Jeremy Lauzon and Colton Sissons from the Nashville Predators in exchange for Nicolas Hague and a 2027 third-round pick. #VegasBornpic.twitter.com/sxYZoEnC3Y

— Vegas Golden Knights (@GoldenKnights) June 30, 2025

Lauzon, 28, is a seven-year NHL defenseman who has played for the Nashville Predators, Seattle Kraken, and Boston Bruins. He has appeared in 316 NHL games, including 187 with the Predators, recording 28 points (10 goals, 18 assists) over four seasons. Lauzon set career highs during the 2023–24 season with six goals, 14 points, and 383 hits in 79 games. He has also made four appearances in the Stanley Cup Playoffs, twice with the Bruins and twice with the Predators, skating in a total of 22 postseason games.

Sissons, 31, is a right-shot forward who’s appeared in 690 games with Nashville owning 221 points (95 Goals, 126 Assists) and holds a plus-18 rating over 11 seasons. Known for his physical style of play, Sissons leads all Nashville Predators skaters in hits since the 2015–16 campaign, accumulating 1,131, including a career-high 188 in the 2021–22 season. In the 2023–24 regular season, he set personal bests with 15 goals and 30 total points across 72 games. 

Sissons has appeared in 71 playoff games, tallying 10 goals and 15 assists for 25 points. He played in all 22 games during Nashville’s memorable run to the 2017 Stanley Cup Final, contributing 12 points (6 Goals, 6 Assists) and finishing with a plus-7 rating. One of his most iconic performances came in Game 6 of the Western Conference Final that year, when he recorded a hat trick to help the Predators clinch their first-ever trip to the championship round. Nashville will retain 50% of Sissons’ salary as part of the trade. 

One of our first draft picks and a Stanley Cup Champion.

Thank you for everything & best of luck, Haguer! 🦒#VegasBornpic.twitter.com/y35TXHR72C

— Vegas Golden Knights (@GoldenKnights) June 30, 2025

Hague has signed a four-year, $22 million contract with the Predators. 

PHOTO COURTESY: Golden Knights

The Buffalo Sabres made a pair of trades before and during the 2025 NHL Draft in Los Angeles which were as much about changing the makeup of the roster as they were about trimming the budget of the club in advance of the beginning of free agency on July 1. 

The JJ Peterka trade brought back two players in defenseman Michael Kesselring and forward Josh Doan under contract for 2025-26. Kesselring will make $1.4 million and is an arbitration-eligible restricted free agent next summer, so the Sabres have control over him for two seasons. Doan is on the final year of his entry-level contract, and after this season Buffalo has four years of control over him before he becomes an unrestricted free agent. 

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Peterka obviously wanted out of Buffalo, but it is not clear if it was an issue with the organization being a perennial non-playoff club, if it was that the Sabres would not give him a significant raise and a long-term contract or all of the above. Clearly, the Sabres were not willing to pay a 23-year-old who at this point was not a complete two-way player the five-year, $38.5 million deal that Utah signed him to, and they did not want draft picks had Peterka gone the way of an offer sheet.

The trade sending a 2025 second round pick and defenseman Connor Clifton to Pittsburgh for defenseman Conor Timmins and minor leaguer Isaac Beliveau was an obvious salary dump. GM Kevyn Adams indicated that it was likely that Clifton would not be back after the final year of his three-year, $10 million deal, and that the Sabres had coveted Timmins for awhile, but not mentioned was the fact that they gave up a high draft pick to save likely $2 million in salary if Timmins takes his qualifying offer. 

After re-signing winger Jack Quinn to a two-year, $6.75 million contract extension, the Sabres now have just under $21 million going into free agency on Tuesday, but it remains a question whether this summer will be different than other recent ones where Adams is on a budget and leaves significant cap space unspent.       

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The Toronto Maple Leafs have announced their roster for this year's development camp.

All six of Toronto's selections from the 2025 NHL Draft (No. 64, Tinus Luc Koblar; No. 86, Tyler Hopkins; No. 137, William Belle; No. 153, Harry Nansi; No. 185, Rylan Fellinger; No. 217, Matthew Hlacar) will be in attendance for the three-day camp.

Seventeen of Toronto's draft picks, including the 2025 selections, and picks from previous drafts will be present, highlighted by Easton Cowan and Ben Danford. The other names on the list are 2024 picks, Miroslav Holinka, Victor Johansson, Matthew Lahey, Nathan Mayes, Sam McCue, Alex Plesovskikh; 2023 picks, Noah Chadwick, Hudson Malinoski; and 2022 third-round pick Nick Moldenhauer.

The Maple Leafs will also have four NHL-signed players at the camp: Luke Haymes, John Prokop, Blake Smith, and Borya Valis. All four players played at least one AHL game with the Toronto Marlies after signing in the spring.

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Four players signed to AHL contracts, including Ryan Kirwan, Rhett Parsons, Chas Sharpe, and Landon Sim will attend the camp. Aside from Sim, who won the Memorial Cup with Cowan and the London Knights, all three players have appeared in a professional game.

A total of 48 players (29 forwards, 15 defensemen, and four goaltenders) are attending development camp this year. All four goaltenders are free-agent invites; none of Toronto's drafted goaltenders will be at the camp.

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The three-day camp will feature approximately 10 hours of on-ice work for the prospects from Thursday, July 3, to Saturday, July 5. Maple Leafs assistant general manager, player development, Hayley Wickenheiser, will speak at the beginning and end of the camp.

(Top photo of Cowan: John E. Sokolowski / Imagn Images)