VANCOUVER, BC – All the Vancouver Canuckshave done for most of the last eight years is lose. Ian Cole is the opposite.
While there hasn’t been a National Hockey League playoff game in Vancouver since 2015, Cole has made it to the Stanley Cup tournament the last nine seasons. And with six different teams.
SEATTLE, WA – Seattle training camp continued Friday at Kraken Community Iceplex, with new rounds of drills, scrimmages, and conditioning exercises. Among the new campers is Pierre-Edouard Bellmare, the pride of Le Blanc-Mesnil, France.
Pierre brings to the Kraken veteran savvy, penalty killing know-how, faceoff expertise, and a smile as wide as the Columbia river. Get to know Bellemare in today’s Kraken Reaction video.
VANCOUVER, BC – When you’ve been a defender in the NHL for 14 years, you get a sense of who is a challenging attacker.
Your job, after all, is to stop the guys who are trying to score.
Ian Cole has a good sense of what made the Vancouver Canucks tick offensively, both from playing against the likes of Elias Pettersson, J.T. Miller and Quinn Hughes, and from his teammates with top-end offensive talent.
Cole’s career resume is astounding when adding up the future hall of famers he’s counted as teammates, starting with this past season in Tampa Bay with Steven Stamkos, Nikita Kucherov and Victor Hedman. Or Nathan MacKinnon, Mikko Rantanen and Cale Makar before that in Colorado.
DETROIT, MI – The Detroit Red Wings made some moves this off-season. They added a few pieces to their offense, hoping to strengthen the forward core, especially in the top six. One of their new additions should be able to lock down a centerman role with the team this season.
The Detroit Red Wings agreed to a five-year, $25.5 million contract with J.T. Compher, who’s been around for the last seven seasons in the National Hockey League (NHL). For the Red Wings, Compher is someone who should be able to jump into the team’s forward core and hopefully have a positive impact immediately.
PHILADELPHIA, PA – Joel Farabee was looking for a pregame cup of coffee before he strapped on the skates to take part in a Checking For Charity tournament game Friday.
It’s a quite a change from where he was a year ago, when Farabee still was recovering from artificial disk replacement surgery in his neck in June 2022. He was cleared for contact a week before the Flyers played their season opener.
He had 39 points (15 goals, 24 assists) in 82 games last season, the most he’s had in his four NHL seasons. But with a regular offseason of training, the 23-year-old feels prepared to contribute more this season.
“When you have the full offseason to work out, I feel like you just have that extra jump in your legs or a little extra energy,” Farabee said. “You feel a lot better. … Just having that whole offseason to work out, your body’s just in a way better place to endure a long season.”
NHL.com caught up with Farabee and discussed several topics, including how his offseason has gone, becoming more of a leader, which teammate forcefully reassured him he was ready for contact last season, and more.
NEWARK, NJ – The New Jersey Devils announced today that the team signed free-agent defenseman Cal Foote to a one-year, two-way contract worth $800,000 at the NHL level and $350,000 at the American Hockey League (AHL) level ($450,000 guaranteed) for 2023-24. The announcement was made by Executive Vice President/General Manager Tom Fitzgerald.
Foote, 24, finished the 2022-23 season with the Predators, after he was traded to Nashville from Tampa Bay on Feb. 26, 2023. A righthanded shot, Foote played in 24 games with Nashville and another 26 with Tampa Bay, totaling seven points (2g-5a) and 63 PIM last season.
In total, Foote has played 141 career regular-season contests (5g-14a) since his NHL debut with Tampa Bay on Jan. 13, 2021, vs. the Chicago Blackhawks. The 6’5″, 225lbs. blueliner has also recorded 121 career PIM and five fighting majors at the NHL level. Foote was a member of the 2021 Stanley Cup winning Tampa Bay Lightning. During Tampa’s Cup run, Foote appeared in 13 playoff games, totaling two assists and averaging 11:29 time on ice per game.
Born Dec. 13, 1998, the Denver, CO native, was selected 14th overall by Tampa Bay in the 2017 NHL Draft. As a member of the Lightning franchise, he played parts of five seasons in the AHL with Syracuse from 2017-18 to 2021-22 and earned 64 career points (18g-46a) in 155 regular-season games. Before his professional career, he played his Junior hockey in the Western Hockey League (WHL) with the Kelowna Rockets from 2015-16 to 2017-18 and was named team captain in his final WHL season. He led all Kelowna defensemen with 57 points (6g-51a) in 2016-17 and again in 2017-18 (19g-51a-70pts).
ANAHEIM, CA – Troy Terry signed a seven-year, $49 million contract with the Anaheim Ducks on Wednesday.
The 25-year-old forward was a restricted free agent and avoided a salary arbitration hearing scheduled for Wednesday.
Terry had 61 points (23 goals, 38 assists) in 70 games for the Ducks last season.
Terry, who had NHL career highs in goals (37) and points (67) in 2021-22, played in the NHL All-Star Game each of the past two seasons.
Selected by Anaheim in the fifth round (No. 148) of the 2015 NHL Draft, Terry has 176 points (75 goals, 101 assists) in 274 regular-season games.
ST.PAUL, MN – The biggest task of the offseason is finally complete for the Wild. They agreed to terms with Filip Gustavsson on Monday, keeping the 25-year-old goaltender in Minnesota on a 3-year, $11.25 million contract with an average annual value of $3.75 million.
This agreement helps the Wild avoid an arbitration hearing with Gustavsson that was scheduled for later this week. Things seemed headed to arbitration with general manager Bill Guerin previously unable to work out a deal with Gustavsson’s representation.
In the end, Guerin and agent Kurt Overhardt came to a compromise, and the Wild will head into next season with Gustavsson and future hall of famer Marc-Andre Fleury in goal.
WILKES-BARRE, PA – Three is a crowd, but six might be a party. The Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins signed noted goalie Garret Sparks to an AHL deal Tuesday.
Sparks, 30, is a journeyman goalie with high points of AHL success and 40 career NHL games, mostly with the Toronto Maple Leafs and an award-winning run with the 2017-18 Toronto Marlies that ended with the Calder Cup.
Pittsburgh Penguins President of Hockey Operations Kyle Dubas was the general manager of that Marlies team. Sparks won the AHL award for best goaltender, led the league in wins (31), and save percentage (.936).
In his 11-year career, Sparks played 37 games for the Toronto Maple Leafs, including 17 in 2015-16, and 20 more in 2918-19. He played one game for the Vegas Golden Knights in 2019-20 and two games for the LA Kings in 2021-22.
In his NHL career, Sparks has an .899 save percentage and a 15-18-2 record.
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