{"id":882908,"date":"2026-09-07T05:28:13","date_gmt":"2026-09-07T05:28:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/882908\/"},"modified":"2026-09-07T05:28:13","modified_gmt":"2026-09-07T05:28:13","slug":"five-key-stories-8-31-26-9-6-26-pro-hockey-rumors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/882908\/","title":{"rendered":"Five Key Stories: 8\/31\/26 \u2013 9\/6\/26 \u2013 Pro Hockey Rumors"},"content":{"rendered":"

September is now upon us which usually results in some player movement before training camps get underway.\u00a0 This past week was no exception with some of that movement making it into the week\u2019s key stories.<\/p>\n

Evangelista To Devils: The Predators have added several players this summer so few were expecting them to turn around and then move one of their top point-getters.\u00a0 However, they did exactly that, trading<\/a> winger Luke Evangelista<\/a> to New Jersey for Colorado\u2019s 2028 first-round pick (with some top-ten protection) and a 2028 second-rounder.\u00a0 The 24-year-old had a breakout year last season, notching 56 points in 81 games, though only a dozen of those were goals.\u00a0 Evangelista has one year left on his bridge deal with a $3MM price tag and should slot into a top-six role with the Devils, a team that has added a few pieces up front now this summer.<\/p>\n

Tolvanen To Rangers: Eeli Tolvanen<\/a> was one of the top remaining unrestricted free agents and was somewhat surprisingly unsigned given his track record.\u00a0 That\u2019s no longer the case now as he inked<\/a> a one-year, $1.5MM deal with the Rangers.\u00a0 The 27-year-old has notched at least 35 points in three straight years now while averaging over two hits per game.\u00a0 Compared to some of the other contracts given to bottom-six players this summer, New York is getting a bit of a bargain, albeit just for one year.\u00a0 Tolvanen will return to the UFA market next July hoping to come off a bounce-back year that will give him enough leverage for a longer-term agreement.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Eight For Buium: With September 15th being the last day for players to sign eight-year contracts, we may see a push to get some of these deals done in the coming days.\u00a0 That\u2019s what happened in Vancouver as they signed<\/a> defenseman Zeev Buium<\/a> to an eight-year, $75.04MM contract extension that begins in 2027-28.\u00a0 The $9.38MM AAV will make Buium Vancouver\u2019s highest-paid defender when the deal comes into effect.\u00a0 The 20-year-old was the centerpiece of the return for Quinn Hughes<\/a> last season, with the Canucks believing that he has a chance to be a high-impact defender.\u00a0 They\u2019ve given him a big vote of confidence with the deal coming off a 26-point showing in his rookie campaign.<\/p>\n

Jarnkrok Heads Home: Unable to secure an NHL contract for the upcoming season, veteran winger Calle Jarnkrok<\/a> has decided to head home.\u00a0 The veteran has signed<\/a> a three-year deal with SHL Brynas, the organization he played in before coming to North America back in 2013.\u00a0 Jarnkrok spent the last four seasons with Toronto but played a limited role last season, being limited to just eight points in 56 games in a career-low 11:50 per night of playing time.\u00a0 In his prime, he was a capable secondary scorer and a strong defensive player while his positional versatility made him a valuable role player for multiple teams.\u00a0 His NHL tenure wraps up with 143 goals and 173 assists in 774 games over parts of 13 seasons.<\/p>\n

Three For Melanson: The Kraken took care of their final remaining restricted free agent this week, re-signing<\/a> winger Jacob Melanson<\/a> to a three-year, $4.35MM deal.\u00a0 The 23-year-old spent most of the first half of last season in the minors with Coachella Valley but showed some promise in the second half.\u00a0 In 36 games with Seattle, Melanson had five points and a whopping 188 hits, an average of over 5.2 per game to lead the league in hits per 60 minutes.\u00a0 He\u2019ll now get a chance to land a full-time role on the Kraken\u2019s fourth line in training camp.<\/p>\n

Photo courtesy of Bob Frid-Imagn Images via Reuters Connect.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"September is now upon us which usually results in some player movement before training camps get underway.\u00a0 This…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":882909,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[556],"tags":[64,63,575,85,26176],"class_list":["post-882908","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\/882908","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=882908"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/882908\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/882909"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=882908"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=882908"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=882908"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}