Around the NHL: Jessica Campbell set to become the first woman to coach full-time behind an NHL bench, Vladimir Tarasenko signed with the Red Wings, and more!

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3 days ago

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The National Hockey League off-season is in full gear, as there has been a ton of player movement.

In this article, we’ll look at a historical hire, some interesting players moving to new teams, and a defenceman heading to Russia.

Let’s take a look at all that in the latest Around the NHL!

Seattle hires Jessica Campbell

Some pretty cool news to start off this article. On Wednesday, the Seattle Kraken hired Jessica Campbell as an assistant coach, and she’ll be the first woman to coach an NHL team full-time in any capacity.

The Rocanville, Saskatchewan-native was an active player from 2010-11 until the 2016-17 season, playing for Cornell University as well as the now-defunct Calgary Inferno. She briefly played in Sweden in 2019-20, but Campbell coached skating from 2017 onwards. Well, that was until she was hired as an assistant coach for the Coachella Valley Firebirds.

In the two seasons she was an assistant coach for the team, they made the Calder Cup Finals, where they were defeated in back-to-back seasons. Still, it’s a pretty darn good track record and it makes sense how the Firebirds’ former head coach Dan Bylsma wanted to bring her on board.

Vladimir Tarasenko signs with Detroit

On to some transactions now, and arguably the biggest signing after the first two days was when the Detroit Red Wings signed Vladimir Tarasenko to a two-year, $9.5 million deal with an annual cap hit of $4.75 million.

Tarasenko isn’t quite the player he once was in his heyday, but he scored 23 goals and 55 points in 76 games between the Ottawa Senators and the Florida Panthers. He won his second Stanley Cup on the latter, scoring five goals and nine points in 24 postseason games en route to the Panthers’ first Stanley Cup in franchise history.

All of a sudden, the Red Wings are starting to look like a pretty good team, at least up front. Their first line consists of Alex DeBrincat, Dylan Larkin, and Lucas Raymond, while their second line has Tarasenko, J.T. Compher, and Patrick Kane. Moreover, there are plenty of highly talented prospects who could challenge for roster spots such as Marco Kasper and Nate Danielson.

It’ll be interesting to see what other moves Steve Yzerman has up his sleeve.

Jack Roslovic signs with Carolina

Like Tarasenko, Jack Roslovic was another player moved at the trade deadline, as the Columbus Blue Jackets traded him to the New York Rangers. Between the two teams, he scored nine goals and 31 points in 59 games, along with two goals and eight points in 16 postseason games.

Well, on Thursday morning, the Carolina Hurricanes announced they signed the third line right-shot centre to a one-year, $2.8 million deal.

This is Roslovic’s fourth team since he was drafted by the Winnipeg Jets in 2015 with the 25th overall pick. In 445 career games, Roslovic has 80 goals and 221 points, along with two goals and 13 points in 36 postseason games.

Nikita Zaitsev heads to the KHL

Nikita Zaitsev burst onto the scene in 2016-17, scoring four goals and 36 points in 82 games for the Toronto Maple Leafs. In turn, they gave him a seven-year, $31.5 million deal with an annual cap hit of $4.5 million. He was traded two years later to the Ottawa Senators, before needing a second attached to him in a cap dump trade to the Chicago Blackhawks.

Zaitsev’s second best season was when he scored four goals and 17 points in 55 games with the Senators in 2020-21, as he never reached the 30 or even 20 point marker again. Well, the 32-year-old Russian is heading back to the Kontinental Hockey League, as he signed a four-year deal with SKA St. Petersburg.

It’s unlikely that the 32-year-old will ever play in the National Hockey League again, given his age and his ability. Overall, he finished with 22 goals and 118 points in 482 games.

Sharks re-sign two players

The San Jose Sharks have been busy this off-season. They drafted Macklin Celebrini with the first-overall pick and signed former Flame Tyler Toffoli to a four-year deal. On top of money, Toffoli also played a season with Sharks’ captain Logan Couture with the Ottawa 67’s in 2008-09, a team I watched a lot as I’m from Ottawa.

Prior to the draft, the Sharks also traded a pick to the Dallas Stars for Ty Dellandrea, and also acquired Carl Grundstom in a trade with their state rivals, the Los Angeles Kings. Well, they were able to re-sign both those players.

Dellandrea was selected 13th-overall in the 2018 draft by the Stars, but never really got an opportunity to play top six minutes given the depth of the team. After a career-high nine goals and 28 points in 82 games in 2022-23, the 23-year-old only scored two goals and nine points in 42 games. Dellandrea signed to a two-year, $2.6 million cap hit with an annual cap hit of $1.3 million.

Grundstrom played for the Los Angeles Kings and also had a career-high in 2022-23, scoring 12 goals and 19 points in 57 games. However, his production dropped in 2023-24, scoring eight goals and 12 points in 50 games. The 26-year-old earned a bit more than Dellandrea, signing a two-year, $3.6 million deal with a cap hit of $1.8 million.

Thanks for reading! You can follow me on Twitter @Ryley_L_D.

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