The playoffs will last a little longer now with Edmonton staying alive on Saturday night. Even so, offseason activity round the league is starting to pick up, including Arizona’s relocation to Utah being made official. Here’s a rundown of the most notable news from the week that was.
Warsofsky Gets Promoted: After a long coaching search, the Sharks decided that the best option to take over behind the bench is someone who was already there. The team announced that they’ve promoted assistant coach Ryan Warsofsky to the top role. Warsofsky was considered for the top job a couple of years ago but was passed over for David Quinn. San Jose struggled as expected over the past two seasons in the midst of a full-scale rebuild and they’ll be hoping to fare better under their rookie head coach. While this is Warsofsky’s first time running an NHL team, he has previous experience running a bench having been a head coach at both the AHL and ECHL levels.
Steen To Become A GM: Long-time NHL forward Alex Steen hasn’t been retired for long but he is about to take on a big front office job. The Blues have announced that Steen will become their new GM starting in the 2026-27 season. Current GM Doug Armstrong, who was under contract for the next two years, inked a three-year extension through 2028-29 as their president of hockey operations, a title he has held since 2013. Steen was a consultant for St. Louis this season and will now have the next two years to get ready to take over the top job. Armstrong, meanwhile, has been the GM for the Blues for the past 14 seasons with St. Louis making ten playoff appearances including their first-ever Stanley Cup in 2019.
Laine In Play: While there will be several big-name wingers available in free agency in a couple of weeks, it appears as if one notable winger is in play on the trade front as the Blue Jackets and Patrik Laine are in agreement that a change of scenery would be beneficial. The 26-year-old was limited to just 18 games this season between injuries and spending time in the NHL/NHLPA Player Assistance Program where he has been since January. When he’s at his best, Laine is one of the more dangerous scoring threats in the NHL but he has played in just 129 games over the past three seasons combined. Laine has two years left on his contract with an $8.7MM AAV, a price tag that will be tricky for a lot of teams to fit in, even with the $4.5MM increase in the salary cap.
Kakko Signs…
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