6:39 PM ET Hall of Fame goaltender Tony Esposito, who was a fixture for the Chicago Blackhawks, has died at the age of 78. Blackhawks owner Rocky Wirtz said in a statement that Esposito had a brief battle with pancreatic cancer. Chicago claimed Esposito from the Montreal Canadiens in what was then an intra-league draft
The Seattle Kraken have named Dan Bylsma as an assistant coach with the AHL’s Charlotte Checkers for the 2021-22 season. Seattle is joining the Florida Panthers as an affiliate of the Checkers this season. Bylsma will work with head coach Geordie Kinnear, who will begin his fifth season leading the Panthers’ top affiliate. Bylsma joins
After winning the 2021 Frank J. Selke Trophy and leading the Florida Panthers to a second-straight postseason appearance for the first time since 1996-97, Aleksander Barkov has cemented himself as a team legend. As captain since 2018-19, Barkov has shown both on and off the ice that he is worthy of being named the greatest
The Detroit Red Wings and winger Jakub Vrana agreed to a three-year contract worth $5.25 million per season Tuesday, avoiding arbitration. Vrana, a 25-year-old Czech, had eight goals and three assists in 11 games last season with the Red Wings after they acquired him as part of a major move just before the NHL trade
In a final bit of offseason housekeeping, the New Jersey Devils re-signed restricted free agent Janne Kuokkanen to a two-year deal worth an average annual value of $1.825 million. Kuokkanen, who the team acquired at the 2020 trade deadline, finished this season with 25 points in 50 games — a 41-point pace over 82 games. After re-signing Yegor
5:26 PM ET Associated Press CHICAGO — Longtime Chicago Blackhawks radio analyst Troy Murray says he has cancer. Murray said Monday he wanted “to let everyone know of the challenge that I’m currently facing.” He said he is confident he will beat the disease and looks forward “to being in the booth calling Blackhawk games
The Stockton Heat have added assistant coach Don Nachbaur and video coach Kohl Schultz to the team’s coaching staff. The pair joins head coach Mitch Love, assistant coach Joe Cirella and development goalie coach Thomas Speer on the Heat staff for the 2021-22 season. Nachbaur joins the Heat after spending the 2020-21 season as head
The New York Rangers have secured the services of their number one goalie, Igor Shesterkin, on a new four-year deal worth $22.6 million. His contract carries an annual average value of $5.66 million, an increase from the $925,000 he earned on the entry-level agreement that went into effect during the 2019-20 season. This new contract breaks
The New York Rangers locked up their goaltender of the future Monday by agreeing to re-sign Igor Shesterkin to a four-year contract. The 25-year-old Shesterkin was a restricted free agent who went 16-14-3 last season in taking over the starting duties following Henrik Lundqvist’s departure. Terms of Shesterkin’s deal weren’t announced, but both The New
The Philadelphia Flyers re-signed goalie Carter Hart to a three-year, $11.9-million US contract on Monday. The 22-year-old from Sherwood Park, Alta., was a restricted free agent and coming off a season in which he struggled maintaining the starter’s job in his third season with the team. Hart’s numbers plummeted in finishing with a 9-11-5 record
Summertime at The Hockey Writers means that we get the chance to have some fun that we might not be able to during the season. We get to look into some hypotheticals, some things that we all dream about in sports. Most of those revolve around the star-crossed players, who may not have worked out
8:54 PM ET ESPN News Services The Washington Capitals re-signed goaltender Ilya Samsonov to a one-year, $2 million contract on Monday. Samsonov, 24, was a restricted free agent after posting a 13-4-1 mark last season with two shutouts. He struggled in the postseason — much like most of the Capitals did — dropping all of
Kevin Dineen knows there will be hiccups along the way. The newly hired head coach of the Utica Comets is all too aware that it’s par for the course at the American League level. And he’s OK with that. “I’ve said this before,” Dineen shared through his insight of years coaching in the league, “the
The NHL is in an unprecedented situation financially, with the salary cap barely rising after next season. Cap space is at a premium as teams try to shed salary by moving out expensive contracts via trade or the expansion draft. The Arizona Coyotes weaponized their available cap space to accumulate draft capital. They took on
CALGARY – If NHL players are able to participate at the upcoming Beijing Olympics, Canada will have a two-time Stanley Cup champion behind its bench. Hockey Canada has announced Tampa Bay Lightning coach Jon Cooper as the head of its provisional Olympic coaching staff. Boston head coach Bruce Cassidy, Vegas head coach Peter DeBoer and
If NHL players are able to participate at the upcoming Beijing Olympics, Canada will have a two-time Stanley Cup champion behind its bench. Hockey Canada on Monday announced Tampa Bay Lightning coach Jon Cooper as the head of its provisional Olympic coaching staff. Boston Bruins head coach Bruce Cassidy, Vegas bench boss Peter DeBoer and
This article was originally published in February, 2013. To get a number retired in the National Hockey League is a special honor, one that is typically reserved for a unique kind of player. It doesn’t necessarily mean that the honoree was a winner, but rather that he did something important to either put his team on
7:00 AM ET The NHL free-agency frenzy of 2021 started 27 days later than the usual opening day of July 1, but it was as wild as any in recent memory, with more than $500 million spent on deals on the first day alone. A number of valuable players remain who have yet to make