{"id":859861,"date":"2026-08-16T06:02:14","date_gmt":"2026-08-16T06:02:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/859861\/"},"modified":"2026-08-16T06:02:14","modified_gmt":"2026-08-16T06:02:14","slug":"metro-notes-perreault-jiricek-bonk-smolin-pro-hockey-rumors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/859861\/","title":{"rendered":"Metro Notes: Perreault, Jiricek, Bonk, Smolin \u2013 Pro Hockey Rumors"},"content":{"rendered":"

If there\u2019s one thing the New York Rangers can look forward to, it\u2019s financial flexibility. The Rangers currently have only four forwards signed beyond the 2026-27 season, providing them with numerous options to reshape their core in the future. In a recent article in The Athletic<\/a>, Vincent Z. Mercogliano argued that New York should use some of that flexibility to sign Gabriel Perreault<\/a> for the long term.<\/p>\n

Perreault, 21, is coming off his rookie campaign with the Rangers and was one of the few bright spots from the 2025-26 campaign. The former 23rd overall pick of the 2023 NHL Draft finished the 2025-26 season with 12 goals and 27 points in 49 games, averaging 15:59 of ice time per game.<\/p>\n

Assuming he remains in a top-six role for the 2026-27 season, Perreault should have every opportunity to improve upon his rookie campaign. Perreault will become a restricted free agent next summer unless he signs an extension beforehand. He has no reason to rush an extension at this point, but could cash in for a serious payday if he has another solid year with the Rangers this upcoming season.<\/p>\n

Additional Metropolitan notes:<\/p>\n

As the 2026-27 season approaches, the Philadelphia Flyers are returning a nearly identical defensive corps to last season. Of note, the only swap they made was adding Simon Benoit<\/a> for Emil Andrae<\/a> in a trade with the Toronto Maple Leafs. Still, the Flyers are preparing for roster battles in training camp and hope to change their blue line through internal development. In a new article from Jordan Hall of NBC Sports<\/a>, General Manager Daniel Bri\u00e8re<\/a> insisted that youngsters David Ji\u0159\u00ed\u010dek<\/a> and Oliver Bonk<\/a> will be given every opportunity to make the opening-night roster.
\nIn a\u00a0recent interview<\/a>\u00a0with Mikhail Skryl from Sports Express, Russian goaltender\u00a0Alexander Smolin<\/a> revealed that he attracted some NHL interest this offseason, particularly from the New Jersey Devils. It\u2019s unlikely that he would have gotten anything larger than an AHL deal, and he told the Devils that he wished to remain in the KHL for the foreseeable future. Still, it wouldn\u2019t be shocking to see Smolin garner NHL attention next summer, as the 22-year-old has a 39-14-4 record in 65 games with a .920 SV% and 2.21 GAA throughout his KHL career.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"If there\u2019s one thing the New York Rangers can look forward to, it\u2019s financial flexibility. The Rangers currently…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":859862,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[433],"tags":[299232,49,48,160152,62539,8030,749,751,448,194849,752,82],"class_list":["post-859861","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-alexander-smolin","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-david-jiricek","tag-gabriel-perreault","tag-khl","tag-new-jersey-devils","tag-new-york-rangers","tag-nhl","tag-oliver-bonk","tag-philadelphia-flyers","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/859861","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=859861"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/859861\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/859862"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=859861"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=859861"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=859861"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}