We have reached the point of the NHL offseason where the news is starting to dwindle. That said, there has still been a few interesting developments across the Atlantic division in the past seven days. Two teams have added to their coaching staffs, the Senators locked up a key depth player and several big-name players remain unsigned.
New Coaches
The Montreal Canadiens continued their trend of hiring minor hockey coaches this week by adding Stephane Robidas to Martin St. Louis’ staff. A veteran of 937 NHL games including 112 as a Hab, Robidas spent last season as the head coach of the Magog Cantonniers of the Quebec U18 AAA Development Hockey League.
After retiring in 2015, Robidas worked in several roles for the Toronto Maple Leafs until 2021 when he was hired as the head coach of the Cantonniers. This will be Robidas second professional coaching job. He previously worked as assistant coach in the ECHL.
Paul Maurice and the Florida Panthers have poached video coach Myles Fee from the Buffalo Sabres. Fee has been the video coach for the Edmonton Oilers in 2009-10 and 2014-16 the Charlotte Checkers of the AHL from 2016-19 and the Sabres from 2019-22. He also worked with Maurice as the video coach of Team Europe at the World Cup of Hockey in 2018.
Senators ink Joseph
The Ottawa Senators have signed depth forward Mathieu Joseph to a four-year deal at an AAV of 2.95 million. Acquired with a fourth-round draft pick last season from the Tampa Bay Lightning for Nick Paul, the 25-year-old Joseph set a career high in points with 30 in 69 games. In his short time as Senator he has been a point-per-game player with four goals and eight assists in 12 games.
Remaining free agents
The Boston Bruins are still set to sign their captain Patrice Bergeron and the recently acquired Pavel Zacha. While Bergeron is a UFA, there have been no reports of him negotiating with other teams. Their cap space currently sits at just under 5 million so they will have to make some roster moves to re-sign both Bergeron and Zacha. It has also been rumoured that they are working on a reunion with long-time Bruin David Krejci who spent last season playing in the Czech league. General manager Don Sweeney should be busy over the next few weeks figuring out how to juggle the salary cap.
Rasmus Sandin is the last RFA remaining for the Toronto Maple Leafs. The 2018 first round pick had his first full season in the NHL last year playing 51 games and registering 16 points. There have been rumours of teams signing Sandin to an offer sheet, but nothing has materialized yet. With the Leafs currently sitting about 1.5 million over the salary cap, they too will have to move some players around to retain Sandin. Two players who could be traded to help the Leafs sign Sandin and become cap compliant are Alex Kerfoot and Justin Holl.
The Detroit Red Wings also have a 2018 first-round pick that is unsigned. Filip Zadina, the former sixth overall selection has yet to come to terms with the club. Zadina has been largely disappointing so far in his NHL career with just 61 points in 161 games. Last season he had ten goals and 14 assists. With the new acquisitions of David Perron and Andrew Copp, Zadina is expected to play in a more sheltered role next season that could help him produce more offensively.
