Ben Shelley Articles - Page 3

The Seattle Kraken were active in free agency on July 1, as they build back towards a playoff appearance. Perhaps their biggest addition came on the blue line, adding defenseman Brandon Montour. The defender signed a seven-year contract with the Kraken, carrying a $7.25 million cap hit. The deal comes with a full no-trade clause […]

The Carolina Hurricanes face quite a bit of uncertainty this offseason, with many of their core players set to become free agents. Among those who could leave the Hurricanes is Teuvo Teravainen. The winger will be turning 30 years old in September and has been a fixture within the team’s forward group for the last […]

The Carolina Hurricanes may be facing a worse cap crunch than any other team in the NHL, entering the offseason. The team’s list of players in need of a new deal includes Jake Guentzel, Brady Skjei, Martin Necas, and others. Without enough available cap space to keep everyone in the fold, we can expect some […]

With the Stanley Cup Playoffs underway and the regular season in the rearview mirror, we’re now nearing NHL Awards season. Starting Monday, NHL Award finalists will start to be announced ahead of the June ceremony. While some awards will be a close race though, this year, the Vezina Trophy is unlikely to be one of […]

For the seventh year in a row, the Ottawa Senators have missed the postseason. The team was officially eliminated from playoff contention a little over a week ago after falling well short of expectations on the year. Entering the season, excitement levels around the team were higher than they’ve been in a long time, and […]

The Vegas Golden Knights signed defenseman Noah Hanifin to an eight-year, $58.8 million contract extension on Thursday. Hanifin was acquired by Vegas from the Calgary Flames at the trade deadline and was set to become an unrestricted free agent. Between the teams this season, Hanifin has managed 13 goals and 44 points in 77 games. […]

The Chicago Blackhawks were the first NHL team to be officially eliminated from playoff contention back in March. While it’s been a terrible year for the team though, it also comes as no surprise. Gone are the days of the Blackhawks contending from year-to-year, with the roster now in a continued overhaul. Chicago’s fully committed […]

The Carolina Hurricanes made the biggest splash of the NHL trade deadline, acquiring Jake Guentzel from the Pittsburgh Penguins. Guentzel had spent his entire career with the Penguins, winning a Stanley Cup with the team in 2017. Over parts of eight seasons in Pittsburgh, the forward managed 466 points across 503 games. In order to […]

The Vegas Golden Knights were active once again at the trade deadline this year, looking towards possible back-to-back Stanley Cups. The team made several moves leading up to the deadline, adding both Noah Hanifin and Anthony Mantha. However, the most surprising addition came on deadline day itself, when Vegas acquired Tomas Hertl from the San […]

The Carolina Hurricanes loaded up at the trade deadline, acquiring not one, but two high-end forwards to prepare for a deep playoff run. Adding Jake Guentzel – the top trade piece available – was the most notable move of the entire deadline. However, the Hurricanes followed up with another sneaky addition to their forward group […]

Currently sitting at the bottom of the Eastern Conference, the Columbus Blue Jackets are set to miss the playoffs for a fourth consecutive season. It’s not an overly new position, given the organization struggled through much of their first 15 years in the NFL. Between their inaugural season in 2000-21 and 2015-16, the team reached […]

The Calgary Flames continued their trade deadline sell-off on Wednesday, sending Noah Hanifin to the Vegas Golden Knights. This three-team trade also involved the Philadelphia Flyers for salary retention purposes. In exchange for Hanifin, the Flames received a 2026 first-round pick, a conditional third-round pick in 2024, and defenseman Daniil Miromanov. Vegas also received forward […]

With the NHL trade deadline coming up on Friday, we can expect a few more big-names dealt around the league. One of the teams we can expect to be active in these trades is the Pittsburgh Penguins. For over a decade now, the Penguins have continued to add whenever possible, often throwing future assets to […]

The Detroit Red Wings announced on Tuesday that they’ve signed forward Michael Rasmussen to a four-year contract extension. Kicking in for the start of the 2024-25 season, the deal carries a $3.2 million cap hit. Below, we take a look at what kind of value the Red Wings are getting with the deal. The Player […]

Nearing the midway mark of the season, the St. Louis Blues find themselves fighting for a playoff spot in the West. A few years removed from contender status, the Blues are more or less now just another team in the mix. The team isn’t as deep as it once was, with some of the bigger […]

As expected, the San Jose Sharks have been out of the Western Conference playoff race from the get-go. The team opened the year with an almost unbelievably bad start, going winless through their first 11 games of the season. While the Sharks have managed to recover a little bit since then, they remain one of […]

A quarter of the way through the 2023-24 season, the New York Islanders have endured a campaign of mixed results. The Islanders have struggled to hold leads and continue to suffer from a lack of offense. Making matters worse, they are beginning to deal with quite a few injuries, adding to the adversity they have […]

Coming off a disappointing 2022-23 season, the St. Louis Blues find themselves in an interesting spot. The Blues have lost significant pieces since their 2019 Stanley Cup win. Alex Pietrangelo, Ryan O’Reilly, Vladimir Tarasenko, Jaden Schwartz, David Perron, Vince Dunn, Ivan Barbashev and others have all since departed. In the meantime, the team hasn’t managed […]

The Ottawa Senators signed defensemen Jake Sanderson to an eight-year contract extension on Wednesday, worth $64.4 million. Sanderson is just 21-years old and was selected fifth overall by the Senators in the 2020 NHL Draft. The defensemen posted 32 points in 77 games during his rookie season and logged nearly 22 minutes per game. His […]

The Dallas Stars’ playoff run ended on Monday, losing in the Western Conference Final to the Vegas Golden Knights. After getting themselves into a 3-0 hole, Dallas was able to battle back with back-to-back wins. However, a blowout loss in Game 6 ended the Stars’ shot at getting back to the Stanley Cup Final for […]

The Vegas Golden Knights and Dallas Stars are set to being their Western Conference Final series on Friday. The Golden Knights finished the season as the top team in the Pacific Division. Their route to this point has included a five-game first round series win over the Winnipeg Jets, before defeating the Edmonton Oilers in […]

The Toronto Maple Leafs‘ season came to an end at the hands of the Florida Panthers in the 2023 Stanley Cup Playoffs on Friday night. Despite rallying back from a 2-0 deficit in Game 5 and forcing overtime, a game-winning goal from Nick Cousins lifted Florida to the 4-1 series win. So while the Maple […]

Just over a week ago, the Toronto Maple Leafs celebrated their first playoff series win in 19 years. Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner, and the rest of the team were flying high after breaking what felt like an unbreakable curse. It marked a huge step for a team who had built a reputation around first round […]

The Vegas Golden Knights and Edmonton Oilers open their second-round series on Wednesday night. Despite dropping their first game of the playoffs, Vegas rallied to win four straight games on route to eliminating the Winnipeg Jets in the first round. Meanwhile, the Oilers are coming off an entertaining series against the Los Angeles Kings, where […]

The Colorado Avalanche won’t be back-to-back Stanley Cup Champions, following a surprising first round loss to the Seattle Kraken. The series wrapped up Sunday night, with the Avalanche falling 2-1 in Game 7 on home ice. It marks the first time in five years the Avalanche didn’t get past the opening round of the playoffs. […]

The Minnesota Wild suffered yet another early playoff exit, this time coming at the hands of the Dallas Stars. The first round series wrapped on Friday, with the Stars defeating the Wild in six games. It marks eight years since the Wild have made it out of the first round of the playoffs and 20 […]

The New York Islanders fell short in their series against the Carolina Hurricanes, suffering a first-round exit in the 2023 Stanley Cup Playoffs. It’s a disappointing result, given the Islanders’ efforts just to get to the postseason. They put together a really strong last few months of the season to squeak in and rebounded after […]

The Winnipeg Jets’ season came to an end Thursday night at the hands of the Vegas Golden Knights. It started as a promising year for the Jets, hovering around the top of the Central Division for much of the season. By the end of the year though, they were just fighting for a playoff spot. […]

Heading into the 2022-23 NHL season, the Calgary Flames seemed like a pretty sure bet to make the playoffs. The Flames were coming off a first-place finish in the Pacific Division the year prior, and the expectation was they’d be right back in the hunt again. Calgary also ended up having an eventful summer, which […]

To say it was an underwhelming 2022-23 NHL season for the Pittsburgh Penguins would be an understatement. For the first time since Sidney Crosby’s rookie season in 2006, the Penguins missed the playoffs. Technically, they were also knocked out in the qualifying round of the 2020 postseason as well but had at least ranked fifth […]

One of the biggest NHL storylines to track over the next few seasons will be Washington Capitals star Alex Ovechkin’s pursuit of Wayne Gretzky’s goal record. As of now, Ovechkin stands only 72 goals back of Gretzky’s 894 goals. With another three years remaining on his contract and the forward remaining healthy, there’s no question […]

Prior to the trade deadline, the Detroit Red Wings locked up captain Dylan Larkin to an eight-year contract extension. Larkin has been with the organization since being drafted 15th overall by the team in 2014. This season, he leads the team in both goals and points by a wide margin. Larkin’s managed 26 goals and […]

In the midst of a monster season, David Pastrnak inked a huge extension with the Boston Bruins ahead of this year’s NHL trade deadline. The forward’s contract is for eight years and carries an $11.25 million cap hit, which will kick in next season. Previously set to become an unrestricted free agent this summer, the […]

The Edmonton Oilers took a big step towards improving their defense group at the trade deadline, acquiring Mattias Ekholm. In the deal, the Oilers sent a package of players and picks to the Nashville Predators. The Predators acquired defenseman Tyson Barrie, prospect Reid Schaefer, a 2023 first-round pick and a 2024 fourth-round pick. Nashville also […]

The Nashville Predators ended up as sellers ahead of the NHL’s trade deadline. Currently sitting outside of a playoff spot and unlikely to sneak into the postseason, the focus for the team turned toward the future. The first indication of this came when the team shipped off forward Nino Niederreiter to the Winnipeg Jets. In exchange […]

As the clear top team in the NHL this season, the Boston Bruins are continuing to improve. Approaching the trade deadline, the Bruins managed to acquire defenseman Dmitry Orlov as part of a three-team deal. In addition to Orlov, Boston also acquired forward Garnet Hathaway from the Washington Capitals and Andrei Svetlakov from the Minnesota […]

The Tampa Bay Lightning are gearing up for another deep playoff run, acquiring Tanner Jeannot from the Nashville Predators. In exchange for Jeannot, the Predators received a huge package of draft picks. Going to Nashville will be a top-10 protected first-round pick in 2025, a second-round pick in 2024, as well as the Lightning’s third-, […]

The Buffalo Sabres locked up a key piece of their young core earlier this month, signing forward Dylan Cozens to a long-term contract extension. Cozens’ new deal is for seven years and carries a $7.1 million cap hit, kicking in next season. Below, we take a look at how the deal breaks down for the Sabres. […]

The Washington Capitals locked up forward Sonny Milano last weekend, signing him to a three-year contract extension, per CBS Sports. Milano’s new deal is worth $5.7 million, carrying a $1.9 million cap hit. It will kick in for the 2023-24 season. Below, we look at how the deal works out for the Capitals. Capitals’ Sonny Milano […]