Chinakhov Wants Out: Speaking of trade speculation, there will be plenty of it surrounding Blue Jackets winger Yegor Chinakhov<\/a> who has made his trade request<\/a> public.\u00a0 The request had already been known to the team with discussions with other teams underway.\u00a0 Chinakhov, a 2020 first-round pick, cited \u201cmisunderstanding with the coach\u201d as the reason for wanting out.\u00a0 He had seven goals and eight assists in 30 games last season but after returning from a back injury, he was predominantly a healthy scratch for the stretch run and their playoff push.\u00a0 Chinakhov has one year left on his contract a $2.1MM cap charge and will be a restricted free agent with salary arbitration eligibility next summer.<\/p>\n Toronto Adds Grit: The Maple Leafs decided to use some of their remaining cap space to add some grit up front, acquiring<\/a> winger Dakota Joshua<\/a> from Vancouver for a 2028 fourth-round pick.\u00a0 Toronto actually drafted the 29-year-old back in 2014 but traded him to St. Louis for future considerations five years later.\u00a0 Joshua had a career year with Vancouver in 2023-24, notching 18 goals and 14 assists in 63 games but missed the start of last season while recovering from testicular cancer and struggled to play at the same level when he did return.\u00a0 Joshua has three years remaining on his contract, one that carries a $3.25MM AAV with Toronto picking up the full freight of that deal.\u00a0 It will now be interesting to see how Vancouver uses their freed-up cap room.<\/p>\n Ducks Duck Arbitration: The Ducks entered the week with two looming arbitration hearings and ended it with none.\u00a0 First, they signed<\/a> goaltender Lukas Dostal<\/a> to a five-year, $32.5MM contract.\u00a0 The 25-year-old took over as Anaheim\u2019s starter and that status was cemented when John Gibson<\/a> was moved to Detroit last month.\u00a0 Dostal played in 54 games last season, posting a 3.10 GAA and a .903 SV% playing behind one of the weaker back ends in the NHL; clearly, the Ducks feel he has another level to get to as the team continues to improve.\u00a0 Soon after that, they re-upped<\/a> defenseman Drew Helleson<\/a> to a two-year, $2.2MM pact.\u00a0 The 24-year-old played in 56 games with Anaheim in 2024-25, his first taste of extended NHL action.\u00a0 He will still be an arbitration-eligible restricted free agent in the 2027 offseason when this agreement expires.<\/p>\n Photo courtesy of\u00a0Terrence Lee-Imagn Images.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With arbitration hearings on the horizon, some players and teams are working to get new deals in place…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":12034,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[433],"tags":[49,48,448,82,11443],"class_list":["post-12033","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-nhl","tag-sports","tag-week-in-review"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12033","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12033"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12033\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12034"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12033"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12033"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12033"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/USATSI_25697541-200x300.jpg\")
<\/a>Vilardi Gets Long-Term Pact: Another player who was arbitration-bound was Jets winger Gabriel Vilardi<\/a>.\u00a0 With two years of team control remaining, Winnipeg\u2019s hope was that they\u2019d be able to get him signed long-term.\u00a0 They did just that, inking<\/a> him to a six-year, $45MM agreement.\u00a0 The centerpiece of the Pierre-Luc Dubois<\/a> trade two summers ago, Vilardi took a step forward (when healthy) in 2023-24 and then blew past that last season, collecting 27 goals and 34 assists in 71 games.\u00a0 The price tag is certainly reasonable for someone who has shown he can be a top-six forward but his lengthy injury history (last season was the only time he reached the 70-game mark) also makes the agreement a bit riskier.\u00a0 That said, the Jets have another core piece under contract for the long haul.<\/p>\n