NHL News

Minnesota - Defenseman Mike Reilly is expected to sign with the Minnesota Wild, the Minneapolis Star-Tribune reported Friday. Reilly, who played at the University of Minnesota, was drafted in the fourth round (No. 98) by the Columbus Blue Jackets in the 2011 NHL Draft. He elected not to sign with the Blue Jackets and became an unrestricted free agent June 15 but cannot sign a contract until July 1.
"I've got to try to earn a spot," Reilly told Michael Russo of the Star-Tribune. "There will be learning curves and mistakes, but I'm ready to learn from the older guys."
Reilly will turn 22 years old next month. He developed into one of the top NHL prospects playing NCAA hockey for the Gophers, and was reportedly coveted by several teams when he became a UFA. The contract with the Wild is expected to be for two years and $1.85 million plus bonuses, the Star-Tribune reported.
Reilly had six goals and 42 points in 39 college games last season. He had 18 goals and 89 points in 117 games over three seasons for the Gophers.


Nashville - Veteran center Mike Fisher's plan all along was to re-sign with the Predators. It was just a matter of putting together a contract that worked for both sides. Fisher signed a two-year, $8.8 million contract with the Predators on Friday, five days before he was scheduled to become an unrestricted free agent on July 1. He will make $4.8 million next season and $4 million in 2016-17, the Predators said. Fisher finished the 2014-15 season with 19 goals and 39 points in 59 games. Fisher has been with the Predators for five seasons since being traded from the Ottawa Senators in February of 2011. The two-year contract will keep him in Nashville through the 2016-17 season. The Predators finished second in the Central Division in 2014-15 with 104 points and lost in the first round of the 2015 Stanley Cup Playoffs to the Chicago Blackhawks. They have a young core returning next season, and Fisher is excited to be a part of leading that group once again.
Los Angeles - The Kings and Tyler Toffoli reached agreement Friday on a two-year contract. It's worth $6.5 million, according to ESPN.com. Toffoli will make $2.6 million next season and $3.9 million in 2016-17. Toffoli, 23, had career highs of 23 goals and 49 points this season in 76 games. He has 37 goals and 83 points in 148 regular-season games with the Kings, who selected him in the second round (No. 47) of the 2010 NHL Draft. Toffoli was a member of the Kings' 2014 Stanley Cup championship team and has nine goals and 20 points in 38 Stanley Cup Playoff games.


Calgary - The Flames acquired defenseman Dougie Hamilton from the Boston Bruins on Friday in exchange for a first-round pick and two second-round picks in the 2015 NHL Draft. The Bruins will receive the Nos. 15, 45 and 52 draft picks for Hamilton, who turned 22 on June 17 and comes off a season in which he set career highs with 10 goals and 42 points in 72 games. He is set to become a restricted free agent on July 1. The ninth pick in the 2011 NHL Draft by the Bruins, he has 22 goals and 83 points in 178 games over three seasons.
"It's a team I've been following, especially this year with their rise and all the great players they have," Hamilton said in comments tweeted by the Flames. "I'm really happy."

Ottawa - The Senators traded Robin Lehner and center David Legwand to the Buffalo Sabres on Friday for the No 21 pick in the 2015 NHL Draft. GM Bryan Murray was happy with the return and being able to shed Legwand's $3.5 million salary for the 2015-16 season, he did not like the idea of handing a promising, young goaltender to a division rival. But in order to get the return he wanted, that was the compromise Murray had to make. Murray said Lehner, who turned 24 on Wednesday, attracted far more interest from other teams than starter Craig Anderson, who is 34 and has three more years left on a contract with a salary cap charge of $4.2 million, according to war-on-ice-com. Lehner is signed for two more years at a cap charge of $2.225 million and will be a restricted free agent when the contract expires in 2017. Goaltender Andrew Hammond's emergence out of nowhere this season to lead the Senators into the Stanley Cup Playoffs while Lehner and Anderson were injured created this logjam in the Ottawa net. Murray was convinced by what he saw that Hammond was ready for a full-time role in the NHL. Sabres GM Tim Murray said a condition of the deal imposed by Ottawa was that Legwand had to be included. Bryan Murray explained that shedding Legwand's salary was an important component of the trade, but it was also because of young players such as Jean-Gabriel Pageau and Curtis Lazar showing this season that they are prepared to play bigger roles on the team. After the Senators fired Paul MacLean as coach and replaced him with Dave Cameron, younger players such as Pageau and Lazar took on bigger roles; Legwand often found himself playing a fourth-line role.

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Anaheim - Matt Beleskey is expected to become an unrestricted free agent on July 1 after rejecting a contract offer from the Anaheim Ducks. Beleskey had career highs of 22 goals and 32 points in 65 regular-season games in 2014-15 before scoring eight goals in 16 games in the Stanley Cup Playoffs. He has 57 goals and 55 assists in 329 NHL games over seven seasons, all with Anaheim. The Ducks selected Beleskey in the fourth round (No. 112) of the 2006 NHL Draft. Anaheim also has a decision to make on pending free-agent defenseman Francois Beauchehim, who has played nine seasons in two stints with the Ducks. Beauchemin's agent told The Orange County Register he expected to speak with Murray later this week. Beauchemin, 35, had 11 goals, 12 assists and a plus-17 rating in 64 games this season.

"We made an offer and they rejected it immediately," Ducks general manager Bob Murray said Tuesday. "So, I don't think there's anything else happening there. I said that when we kept him at the trade deadline, that I doubted it was going to work, and they obviously feel they're going to do a lot better. I'm very comfortable with the offer we made, we made a really good offer, and it's just a part of hockey now. I was a big part of drafting him so it's always difficult. We've developed. Like we've done a lot of work here and we've turned him into a pretty good hockey player. But I could have traded him, I could have traded him the day before the deadline. I had a deal, and I just said, 'No, that was wrong for my hockey team.' He played very well in the playoffs. So we didn't get there, but we almost got there."




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