NEWSLETTER
The NHL regular season is in the books! That means it’s time for the best postseason in all of professional sports – the Stanley Cup Playoffs. Before those get underway this weekend, let’s go around the NHL one more time to round out the 2023-24 season.
NHL Notes
NHL Heads to Utah
The NHL is officially headed to Salt Lake City after a vote was passed by the NHL Board of Governors. The ownership group will be led by Ryan and Ashley Smith who also own the Utah Jazz. It’s unfortunate for fans of the Coyotes to lose their team, but the franchise was also given every chance to succeed in Arizona and never did.
“As everyone knows, Utah is a vibrant and thriving state, and we are thrilled to be a part of it,” NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman said in the league’s statement. “We are also delighted to welcome Ashley and Ryan Smith to the NHL family and know they will be great stewards of the game in Utah. We thank them for working so collaboratively with the League to resolve a complex situation in this unprecedented and beneficial way.”
The team will indeed have new name as well, but Ryan Smith didn’t indicate where he was leaning with that just yet.
The league did say that the now former Coyotes owner Alex Meruelo will have a chance to re-activate his franchise. The Arizona Coyotes will remain “inactive” for the next five years, and if Meruelo can come up with a stadium plan and complete that plan with a new, state-of-the-art arena the league will reactivate the franchise. Given Meruelo’s inablilty to pull that off while running the Coyotes for the past several seasons that does seem unlikely, but never say never!
Stanley Cup Playoff Schedule
While we’ve had a pretty good idea of what the first round might look like for a few days now, the matchups and schedule are officially set:
We really could be in for a great first round. You can make the argument for just about every series as the one you’re most looking forward to. We get a couple of awesome rivalries like Toronto vs Boston or Florida vs Tampa. We have a couple of heavyweight fights like Dallas vs Vegas and Colorado vs Winnipeg. All around, this looks like a PHENOMENAL first round of matchups. The best part is, it’s non-stop action night after night for the next few months!
Jeff Carter Retires, Marc-André Fleury Signs One-Year Deal
A pair of Stanley Cup Champions made some significant career decisions official this week. Longtime Flyers, Kings, and Penguins center Jeff Carter hung up the skates after a 19-season NHL career while Marc-André Fleury re-upped for one more season with the Minnesota Wild.
Carter played 72 games for Pittsburgh this season but finished with just 15 points. Throughout his career, however, he was one of the most consistent producers in all of the NHL. Basically, he was the PERFECT second-line center. I’ll still never forget when he was traded to the Kings from the Blue Jackets. The Blackhawks were in the mix for his services, and I so badly wanted him to be that second-line center behind Jonathan Toews. But it wasn’t meant to be, and off to LA he went. Things still worked out more than fine for the Hawks, but that move was a massive reason why the Kings won a pair of Cups in that era.
Carter finishes his career with 851 points (442 G, 409 A) in 1,321 career games.
Fleury, on the other hand, is hanging around for another season with the Minnesota Wild. It feels like it will probably be his last, but so have the last few years with him. Fleury finished this season with a GAA of 2.98 and SV% of .895 in 40 games (36 starts). Statistically, it was one of Fleury’s worst seasons as a pro, but still having him in a 1B type of role makes sense for Minnesota (and for many teams, really).
Filip Gustavsson was the 1A for Minnesota this season and started 43 games. The 25-year-old didn’t put up the best numbers, but having a legend and likely Hall-of-Famer in Fleury behind him to learn from should be an asset. Fleury’s deal is for one season and is worth $2.5 million
