{"id":34313,"date":"2025-07-03T03:49:14","date_gmt":"2025-07-03T03:49:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/34313\/"},"modified":"2025-07-03T03:49:14","modified_gmt":"2025-07-03T03:49:14","slug":"nhl-free-agency-nikolaj-ehlers-remains-unsigned-brent-burns-joins-colorado","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/34313\/","title":{"rendered":"NHL free agency: Nikolaj Ehlers remains unsigned, Brent Burns joins Colorado"},"content":{"rendered":"

Nikolaj Ehlers remains unsigned 30 hours into NHL free agency<\/a>, as the top player available<\/a> weighed his options Wednesday and suitors awaited his decision that could be one of the final big moves of the offseason.<\/p>\n

Ehlers was already a rarity as a sought-after free agent who let the opening day of free agency go by without signing a contract, opting instead to sit back and consider his options. Carolina, Tampa Bay and Washington were considered among the teams interested in pursuing the 29-year-old from Denmark who played his first nine seasons with Winnipeg.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve had talks with his agent,\u201d Hurricanes general manager Eric Tulsky said Tuesday. \u201cHe\u2019s taking his time to field offers. He\u2019s obviously a very popular person right now, and we\u2019re waiting to see where that goes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ehlers and his camp watched Tuesday as fellow winger Brock Boeser re-signed in Vancouver for just over $50 million and older forward Mikael Granlund got $7 million annually from Anaheim. With the salary cap increasing a record amount to $95.5 million and a lack of high-end talent available, Ehlers could sign the most lucrative contract among players changing teams this summer.<\/p>\n

Who\u2019s on the move<\/p>\n

Veteran defenseman Brent Burns agreed to terms with Colorado on a contract for next season. The 2017 Norris Trophy winner is 40 and past his prime, but he averaged nearly 23 minutes a game on Carolina\u2019s run to the Eastern Conference final and will likely only be asked to play in a third-pairing role with the Avalanche.<\/p>\n

Burns is back in the West where he spent his first 18 NHL seasons before the last three with the Hurricanes.<\/p>\n

After signing Andrew Mangiapane late Tuesday night, Edmonton signed Curtis Lazar on Wednesday for the league minimum $775,000. They\u2019ll take spots of departing wingers Connor Brown and Corey Perry, who departed after back-to-back trips to and losses in the final.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s nice to have some new faces to come into your group,\u201d Oilers GM Stan Bowman said. \u201cThey bring a bit of a different energy. They weren\u2019t here last year when we made the (final) and the year before, so I think they\u2019re hungry to get that far in the playoffs.\u201d<\/p>\n

The New York Islanders signed Maxim Shabanov after the sought-after KHL forward drew interest from multiple teams interested in bringing him to North America.<\/p>\n

The New York Rangers agreed to terms with Taylor Raddysh on a two-year contract worth $3 million, New Jersey re-signed Cody Class for $5 million over the next two seasons, Pittsburgh added Anthony Mantha for $2.5 million and Alexander Alexeyev for $775,000, St. Louis signed Pius Suter for two years and $8.25 million and Detroit got Mason Appleton for $4.8 million over two years.<\/p>\n

Who\u2019s left?<\/p>\n

Ehlers being unsigned is almost certainly holding things up for forwards such as Anthony Beauvillier, Jack Roslovic Jeff Skinner, who could be part of a Plan B or C for those who don\u2019t land their first choice.<\/p>\n

Defensemen Dmitry Orlov and Matt Grzelcyk and goaltenders Ilya Samsonov and Alexandar Georgiev are also still available.<\/p>\n

\u201cDay 1 is always a little bit hectic and crazy,\u201d said San Jose GM Mike Grier, who made multiple moves but still needs to spend more to get to the salary floor. \u201cWe\u2019ll kind of see how things shake out. After (Tuesday night), things will settle down and teams will kind of regroup and see what\u2019s out there and the free agents will do the same.\u201d<\/p>\n

What else<\/p>\n

St. Louis put veteran defenseman Nick Leddy on waivers. Leddy has one year left on his contract at a salary cap hit of $4 million.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s unclear how much \u2014 or how long \u2014 24-year-old Buffalo Sabres restricted free agent Bowen Byram will sign for, though general manager Kevyn Adams said he would match any offer sheet aimed at poaching him. Trading Byram is also a possibility.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve maintained the same position that if there\u2019s a deal out there that makes sense for us that we think improves our roster, we\u2019re open to it,\u201d Adams said. \u201cBut if there\u2019s not, we\u2019re not in a situation where we\u2019re looking to move him out or looking to move him for futures and stuff like that.\u201d<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

AP Hockey Writer John Wawrow in Buffalo, New York, and AP Sports Writer Aaron Beard in Raleigh, North Carolina, contributed to this report.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

AP NHL: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/nhl<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Nikolaj Ehlers remains unsigned 30 hours into NHL free agency, as the top player available weighed his options…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":34314,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[28399,28412,28403,28409,28407,7944,28394,28405,4439,12111,28415,28401,28402,12785,84,28411,6064,723,28417,28406,28398,564,28414,28416,28413,8006,28396,28400,28410,521,401,293,16068,28397,28395,519,28404,62,2732,28418,28408,67,132,68,18321,906],"class_list":{"0":"post-34313","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-alexander-alexeyev","9":"tag-alexander-georgiev","10":"tag-andrew-mangiapane","11":"tag-anthony-beauvillier","12":"tag-anthony-mantha","13":"tag-bowen-byram","14":"tag-brent-burns","15":"tag-brock-boeser","16":"tag-colorado","17":"tag-compensation-in-sports","18":"tag-connor-brown","19":"tag-corey-perry","20":"tag-curtis-lazar","21":"tag-dc-wire","22":"tag-district-of-columbia","23":"tag-eric-tulsky","24":"tag-fl-state-wire","25":"tag-florida","26":"tag-ilya-samsonov","27":"tag-jack-roslovic","28":"tag-jeff-skinner","29":"tag-maryland","30":"tag-mason-appleton","31":"tag-matt-grzelcyk","32":"tag-maxim-shabanov","33":"tag-md-state-wire","34":"tag-mikael-granlund","35":"tag-mike-grier","36":"tag-national-hockey-league","37":"tag-nc-state-wire","38":"tag-new-jersey","39":"tag-nhl","40":"tag-nhl-hockey","41":"tag-nick-leddy","42":"tag-nikolaj-ehlers","43":"tag-north-carolina","44":"tag-pius-suter","45":"tag-sports","46":"tag-sports-transactions","47":"tag-stan-bowman","48":"tag-taylor-raddysh","49":"tag-united-states","50":"tag-unitedstates","51":"tag-us","52":"tag-va-state-wire","53":"tag-virginia"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34313","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34313"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34313\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34314"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34313"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34313"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34313"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}