{"id":752441,"date":"2026-06-22T07:53:13","date_gmt":"2026-06-22T07:53:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/752441\/"},"modified":"2026-06-22T07:53:13","modified_gmt":"2026-06-22T07:53:13","slug":"five-key-stories-6-15-26-6-21-26-pro-hockey-rumors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/752441\/","title":{"rendered":"Five Key Stories: 6\/15\/26 \u2013 6\/21\/26 \u2013 Pro Hockey Rumors"},"content":{"rendered":"

The offseason is in full swing and as expected, it was a busy week across the NHL.\u00a0 On top of a long-time Blackhawk confirming reports last month about his retirement<\/a>, there were several signings, hirings, and trades over the past seven days.\u00a0 We recap the most notable ones in our key stories.<\/p>\n

Key Injury In Anaheim: The Ducks will be without one of their top forwards when the season gets underway in late September.\u00a0 The team announced that winger Troy Terry<\/a> underwent successful hip surgery<\/a> to repair an impingement; the recovery timeline is five to six months.\u00a0 That means the best-case scenario is that he\u2019d miss around the first six weeks of the season while at the back end of the timeline, he\u2019d only be coming back a little before the holiday break.\u00a0 Terry had 57 points in 61 games for the Ducks this season and has tallied at least 54 points in five straight seasons now, meaning Anaheim will be without some firepower early on in 2026-27.<\/p>\n

Kraken Get Wingers: After a disappointing year, the Kraken got a head start on their summer shopping.\u00a0 They dealt<\/a> the 25th pick in this coming week\u2019s draft along with a 2027 second-rounder to Florida in exchange for pending RFA winger Mackie Samoskevich<\/a>.\u00a0 The 23-year-old was a first-round pick back in 2021 but hasn\u2019t been able to establish himself as a full-time top-six forward just yet on a deep Florida roster.\u00a0 Now, he\u2019ll have a better chance of getting that opportunity in Seattle, a team that appears set to lose multiple wingers in free agency.\u00a0 They then followed that up by re-signing<\/a> winger Bobby McMann<\/a> to a six-year deal worth $5.75MM.\u00a0 Acquired at the trade deadline from Toronto, he had a career year with 29 goals in 78 games while establishing himself as a top-six forward.\u00a0 As for the Panthers, they took that pick and, well, used it rather quickly.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Tkachuk Brothers Reunited: Florida quickly moved<\/a> the 25th pick although with the ninth selection, a 2029 first-rounder (top-10 protected), and a 2027 second-round pick to Ottawa in exchange for winger Brady Tkachuk<\/a>.\u00a0 Tkachuk had spent his entire eight-year NHL career with the Sens to this point and had been their captain.\u00a0 However, speculation had started to surface that he might welcome a change of scenery but while he denied it, he later went to management and indicated that he wouldn\u2019t re-sign two years from now.\u00a0 Rather than let the situation fester, GM Steve Staios moved him out and will now try to flip some of those picks for the win-now help he couldn\u2019t get in this swap although for now, it\u2019s a big blow to their roster.\u00a0 As for Florida, Tkachuk will now get to play with his brother Matthew Tkachuk<\/a> on one of the deeper forward groups in the league.\u00a0 The Panthers still need to sign a goalie tandem but this move will put them at or near the top in speculative Stanley Cup favorites next season.\u00a0 With this move and the Samoskevich one, the Panthers have dealt all of their first-round picks from 2021 through 2029 now.<\/p>\n

More Coaching Changes In Vegas: The Golden Knights have changed head coaches for the second time in three months.\u00a0 After taking the team to the Stanley Cup Final, John Tortorella\u2019s contract wasn\u2019t<\/a> renewed; instead, AHL Henderson bench boss Ryan Craig was promoted<\/a> to the top job in Vegas.\u00a0 This was likely the planned move all along with GM Kelly McCrimmon thinking Tortorella might be able to get more out of the group in a late-season coaching change when Bruce Cassidy was let go.\u00a0 Considering how they fared in the playoffs, it\u2019s safe to say the plan worked.\u00a0 But Craig has waited for his turn, spending time as an assistant in the NHL and head coach in their system, making him the logical long-term fit for their head coaching role.<\/p>\n

Busy Week In Toronto: The Maple Leafs are the early leader in the busiest team category.\u00a0 First, they dealt<\/a> goaltender Joseph Woll<\/a> and defenseman Simon Benoit<\/a> to Philadelphia for pending restricted free agent goalie Samuel Ersson<\/a>, pending RFA defenseman Emil Andrae<\/a>, and a third-round pick.\u00a0 Assuming that Ersson goes non-tendered, the deal allows them to clear their goalie surplus, add a young defenseman that they think still has some upside, plus a draft pick.\u00a0 In doing so, they opened up some cap space.\u00a0 The Flyers, meanwhile, get an upgrade at the backup goalie position while Benoit gives them some extra grit at the back end of their blueline.<\/p>\n

That cap space was quickly spent.\u00a0 They acquired blueliner Darren Raddysh<\/a> in a sign-and-trade with Tampa Bay, sending<\/a> a fifth-round pick to the Lightning to get them to sign the defender to an eight-year, $68MM contract.\u00a0 The 30-year-old had a breakout showing this past season, recording 22 goals and 48 assists in 73 games, making him one of the top-scoring defenders in the NHL.\u00a0 He has only been a full-time NHLer for three seasons now, with his output in the other two years being in the 30s.\u00a0 New GM John Chayka clearly feels that Raddysh can be a top-end producer with this commitment and the blueliner should get a chance to put up some big numbers in Toronto.<\/p>\n

In between those moves, the Maple Leafs made their head coaching hire, bringing back a familiar face.\u00a0 The team appointed<\/a> Jim Hiller<\/a> as their new bench boss.\u00a0 He spent four years as an assistant in Toronto and is coming off his first head coaching role, spending parts of three years at the helm in Los Angeles where his teams played to a 93-58-24 record.\u00a0 While Hiller\u2019s Kings this season were known for trying to play a stingy defensive system, it\u2019s fair to assume that the team will be asking him to open things up a bit more to allow some of their top offensive talents to make the type of impact they have in the past.<\/p>\n

Photo courtesy of\u00a0 John E. Sokolowski-Imagn Images.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The offseason is in full swing and as expected, it was a busy week across the NHL.\u00a0 On…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":752442,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[556],"tags":[64,63,575,85,26176],"class_list":["post-752441","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-nhl","tag-sports","tag-week-in-review"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/752441","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=752441"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/752441\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/752442"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=752441"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=752441"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=752441"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}