{"id":753073,"date":"2026-06-22T06:27:18","date_gmt":"2026-06-22T06:27:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/753073\/"},"modified":"2026-06-22T06:27:18","modified_gmt":"2026-06-22T06:27:18","slug":"central-notes-bedard-kerfoot-nichushkin-pro-hockey-rumors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/753073\/","title":{"rendered":"Central Notes: Bedard, Kerfoot, Nichushkin \u2013 Pro Hockey Rumors"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Blackhawks have a big-ticket contract this summer with center Connor Bedard<\/a> in need of a new deal.\u00a0 It doesn\u2019t appear as if talks are going well thus far as Ben Pope of the Chicago Sun-Times relays<\/a> that it doesn\u2019t sound like they\u2019ve made much progress in those discussions.\u00a0 The top pick in 2023 is coming off his best season so far, one that saw him pick up 30 goals and 45 assists in 69 games but it\u2019s widely expected that his best years are still to come.\u00a0 Accordingly, the two sides are going to be building a deal that pays him with the expectation of those big seasons.\u00a0 Pope speculates that the AAV could land between $13MM and $16MM depending on the term of the agreement.\u00a0 An eight-year deal can be signed until mid-September but Bedard\u2019s camp could push for a shorter-term contract to allow him to sign a bigger one down the road.<\/p>\n

More from the Central:<\/p>\n

The Mammoth are hoping to re-sign pending unrestricted free agent Alexander Kerfoot<\/a>, reports David Pagnotta of The Fourth Period<\/a>. At this point, discussions aren\u2019t believed to be close but they\u2019re still in talks.\u00a0 The 31-year-old is coming off an injury-riddled campaign that saw him play in a career-low 34 games where he had seven goals and six assists.\u00a0 Kerfoot\u2019s output has ticked down a bit as of late but he still has two seasons of at least 45 points out of the last five while his positional versatility adds some value as well.\u00a0 He\u2019s coming off a deal that saw him make $3MM and given the demand for centers this summer, Kerfoot could potentially beat that if he makes it to the open market.
\nHaving already moved out Ross Colton<\/a> to open up some cap space, Sean Keeler of The Denver Post suggests<\/a> that the Avalanche\u2019s next move should be to deal winger Valeri Nichushkin<\/a>. The 31-year-old has been a quality top-six winger when he\u2019s at his best but between injuries and time in the Player Assistance Program, availability has been an issue for him while he\u2019s coming off an underwhelming performance in the playoffs after putting up 49 points in 72 games during the regular season.\u00a0 Nichushkin has four years left on his contract at $6.125MM per year and moving him out would open up a lot more flexibility for GM Joe Sakic to work with.\u00a0 However, it would also create an opening to fill in their top six and Nichushkin\u2019s overall track record is good enough to drum up some interest.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Blackhawks have a big-ticket contract this summer with center Connor Bedard in need of a new deal.\u00a0…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":689476,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[433],"tags":[185518,49,48,756,758,45814,448,82,765,127368],"class_list":["post-753073","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-alexander-kerfoot","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-chicago-blackhawks","tag-colorado-avalanche","tag-connor-bedard","tag-nhl","tag-sports","tag-utah-mammoth","tag-valeri-nichushkin"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/753073","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=753073"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/753073\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/689476"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=753073"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=753073"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=753073"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}