NHL Metropolitan

The Philadelphia Flyers were working to finalize a trade that would send veteran forward Kevin Hayes to the St. Louis Blues, according to The Athletic's Jeremy Rutherford, but the deal now appears to be "in limbo."

Charlie O'Connor and Rutherford reported Saturday that the Flyers planned to send Hayes and defenseman Travis Sanheim to the Blues in exchange for a first-round pick and an unnamed Blues defenseman. Philadelphia would retain part of Hayes' salary in the deal.

However, the unnamed Blues defenseman has invoked his no-trade clause and the deal remains up in the air.

Hayes, who has been included in trade rumors since midway through the 2022-23 season, has three more years on his contract worth $7.1 million annually and won't become an unrestricted free agent until 2026.

Hayes has spent the last four seasons of his career in Philadelphia and was a staple in the team's lineup, tallying 63 goals and 94 assists for 157 points in 253 games. His best season with the franchise came in 2022-23 when he notched 18 goals and 36 assists for 54 points—one short of his career high—in 81 games.

The 31-year-old began his career with the New York Rangers in 2014 and he also played for the Winnipeg Jets.

If traded to St. Louis, Hayes figures to become one of the team's top centers alongside Brayden Schenn, Pavel Buchnevich and Robert Thomas. After moving Ryan O'Reilly to the Toronto Maple Leafs last season, the Blues needed to fill the void this summer.

After finishing the 2022-23 season with a 37-38-7 record and missing the playoffs, Hayes should help the Blues better contend for a postseason spot in 2023-24 and beyond.

As for the Flyers, they are in complete teardown mode under new general manager Daniel Brière after missing the playoffs for three straight seasons.

Parting ways with Hayes will be the second major move for the Flyers this summer after trading defenseman Ivan Provorov to the Columbus Blue Jackets in a three-team deal that also involved the Los Angeles Kings.

Scott Laughton and Tony DeAngelo are among the other names to be mentioned as players that could be traded by the Flyers this summer, according to Andy Strickland of Bally Sports.

Goaltender Carter Hart has also been floated as a potential trade candidate.

The New Jersey Devils and winger Jesper Bratt agreed to an eight-year, $63 million contract Thursday.

Bratt, 24, was set to be an unrestricted free agent this offseason.

"It was always a priority to keep Jesper Bratt here long term and both parties are thrilled that a deal was completed," general manager Tom Fitzgerald said in a statement. "I value and commend the commitment Jesper made to this organization. We believe that he is a special player and a key member of our core group of talent who will contribute towards the team's long-term success, and organizational goal of bringing the Stanley Cup back to New Jersey."

Bratt matched his career high with 73 points (32 goals, 41 assists) last season. His goals were second behind Jack Hughes for the team-high, and his emergence helped the Devils finish third in the Eastern Conference points standings. Bratt added six points in 12 playoff games before New Jersey was eliminated by the Carolina Hurricanes.

"Jesper says that he is super excited to have a deal done, looking forward to Devils bright future and continuing the run for the Cup," Bratt's agent, Joakim Persson, said in a statement to NJ Advance Media's Ryan Novozinsky.

Bratt has been upfront about his desire to remain in New Jersey, but contract extension negotiations proved fraught. It seems his impending restricted free agency ramped up the urgency on both sides, as the Devils are paying a significant price to retain the 2016 sixth-round pick.

New Jersey now has the majority of its core inked for the foreseeable future, which should allow the club to continue building on last season's momentum.

Peter Laviolette's unemployment didn't last long, as the former Washington Capitals head coach has been tapped to replace Gerard Gallant with the New York Rangers.

The Rangers announced Laviolette's hiring on Tuesday, with general manager Chris Drury touting his "extensive experience" as a head coach in the NHL.

"We are thrilled that Peter will be the next Head Coach of the New York Rangers," Drury said. "With Peter's extensive experience as a Head Coach in the National Hockey League, as well as the success his teams have had at several levels throughout his career, we are excited about what the future holds with him leading our team."

According to Pierre LeBrun of TSN, the contract is for three years and will be worth "just under" $5 million per season.

The Rangers and Gallant agreed to a mutual parting of ways on May 6 after the team lost in the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs to the New Jersey Devils.

Gallant led the Rangers to back-to-back seasons with more than 100 points in the regular season. They lost in the Eastern Conference Finals during the 2021-22 season in six games after taking a 2-0 series lead against the Tampa Bay Lightning.

Prior to Gallant's hiring in June 2021, the Rangers hadn't won a playoff series since the 2016-17 season.

Laviolette parted ways with the Washington Capitals on April 14, one day after the end of the regular season. The Capitals missed the playoffs this season for the first time since 2013-14. Their 80 points were the fewest for the franchise in an 82-game season since 2006-07 (70 points).

The 58-year-old Laviolette went 115-78-27 in three seasons with Washington. He has 21 years of head coaching experience in the NHL with five different teams dating back to 2001-02. His teams have advanced to the Stanley Cup Final three times, including a win with the Carolina Hurricanes in 2005-06.

Laviolette's 752 career wins as a head coach are the eighth-most in NHL history.

The game of NHL head coach musical chairs has stopped once again with Peter Laviolette landing on Broadway. The 58-year-old will be announced as the 37th head coach in franchise history Tuesday.

The Rangers, following a demoralizing first-round exit, fired Gerard Gallant after just his second season on the job. He leaves New York in search of his fifth NHL head coaching job and is replaced by a 58-year-old who will soon command his sixth NHL team. Retread out and retread in.

Sort of.

Hockey fans are rightly critical of the sport's struggle to embrace diversity and innovation in deference to familiarity and comfort. Or, in the worst cases, full-blown cronyism.

But to categorize Laviolette and Gallant as interchangeable would be a disservice. Specifically, to Laviolette.

For one, their resumés are incomparable. Gallant wore out his welcome rapidly everywhere he has been, following up immediate success that was sometimes goaltending-driven and fumbling once the team needed new ideas.

Laviolette, meanwhile, typically stays where he ends up. Prior to his three seasons in Washington, the former Rangers defenseman had stints in Nashville (six years), Philadelphia (five years), and Carolina (five years.) He reached the Stanley Cup Final with each of those teams, winning with the Hurricanes in 2006.

His longevity in multiple places speaks to, if nothing else, at least a belief from his superiors in his ability to build and sustain something over a length of time; something that Gallant has never inspired. And three Cup Finals appearances with three different teams are hard to knock. At a minimum, he maintained control of the locker room and did not impede good teams. That is often half the battle for NHL head coaches.

There is a particular reason to believe that Laviolette might be the right hire for the Rangers from a tactical perspective. Hard-bent on the idea that the team needed to be more physical and tougher to play against, Gallant attempted to instill a forechecking identity that relied on lots of throwing pucks forward aimlessly and chasing them down.

The tactics were sloppily applied. Yet it's difficult to imagine a well-executed approach in this mold. The Carolina Hurricanes aren't just a great forechecking team because of head coach Rod Brind'Amour's tactical genius but because management builds him a roster that plays directly into his desired approach.

The Rangers were not and are not built to play like that. The likes of Chris Kreider, Mika Zibanejad, and Chytil bring significant speed in possession while others such as Artemi Panarin, Vincent Trocheck, and Alexis Lafreniére are highly skilled puck handlers.

As currently constructed, this team is not built to send pucks behind defenders and chase. Rather, the Rangers' makeup demands lots of creating zone entries with possession and scoring from quick sequences. Lots of speed on transition rushes and lots of east-west passing upon entering the zone.

That should have been all the more obvious once Vladimir Tarasenko and Patrick Kane arrived.

They tried a forechecking game regardless. The results against the Devils were quite obvious. The Rangers could not gain the zone against the Devils and, when they did, could not set up a cycle. The Devils were simply too fast to pucks and too skilled at getting them back into the neutral zone quickly.

Enter Laviolette. Both Washington and Nashville played styles more in-line with a rush-offense initiative. Both teams would defend well and defenders would send the puck forward for quick strikes on rushes the other way.

In Washington, this rush offense was catalyzed by high-end puck movers in the back such as John Carlson, Dimitri Orlov, and Nick Jensen while Nashville had Roman Josi, Mattias Ekholm, and PK Subban.

This is where things become dicey in New York. As the data collected by All Three Zones indicates, the defensive group was very poor at moving the puck up the ice with possession last season.

Adam Fox is one of the league's top puck-moving defensemen. Ryan Lindgren is competent, making respectable passes up the ice when he isn't deferring to Fox. The second pairing was atrocious at zone exits. Braden Schneider has the ability to match Lindgren as a secondary puck-mover but he received no help on the left side and has been forced in over his head.

It will be tough for general manager Chris Drury to build a defense in Laviolette's image. The club is extremely tight on cap space without any obvious potential departures who can make room for much beyond a frugal depth defenseman.

This is where Laviolette must earn his paycheck. If the team can't improve its breakouts and zone entries through additions, then it will be up to the coaching staff to make the necessary adjustments. Trouba had better results in Winnipeg. K'Andre Miller certainly has wheels. Zac Jones, the team's top defense prospect, plays like Fox but suffered an identity crisis under Gallant.

Some of the adjustments must come via Laviolette and his assistants getting the Non-Fox defensemen to improve their zone exits individually. The other half of the equation will be coaching the team to break out of their own defensive zone in cohesive, supporting structures that were lacking under Gallant.

Unless management can pull off something astounding to open up significant cap space, the Rangers will return with close to the same roster, only without the trade-deadline acquisitions. Drury is putting his hopes in Laviolette to prove that the roster he built struggled not because of makeup but rather tactics.

The Philadelphia Flyers, Columbus Blue Jackets and Los Angeles Kings have finalized a three-team trade that includes defenseman Ivan Provorov and goaltender Cal Petersen.

The Flyers are sending Provorov to the Blue Jackets in exchange for a 2023 first-round pick, a 2024 second-round pick (via the Kings) and a conditional 2024 second-round pick (via the Blue Jackets), they announced Tuesday.

Philadelphia is also receiving Petersen and defensemen Sean Walker and Helge Grans. Los Angeles is retaining 30 percent of Provorov's salary and will also receive defenseman Kevin Connauton and forward Hayden Hodgson from Philadelphia.

To recap, here's a breakdown of what each team has landed in this deal:

Philadelphia Flyers

• Goaltender Cal Petersen
• Defenseman Sean Walker
• Defenseman Helge Grans
• 2023 first-round pick, No. 22 overall (from CBJ)
• 2024 second-round pick (from LAK)
• 2024 conditional second-round pick (from CBJ)

Columbus Blue Jackets

• Defenseman Ivan Provorov

Los Angeles Kings

• Forward Hayden Hodgson
• Defenseman Kevin Connauton
• Retain 30 percent of Provorov's salary

Philadelphia's decision to shake things up comes as little surprise after the franchise made changes to the front office following a disappointing 2022-23 campaign in which the team missed the playoffs for the third straight season.

When the Flyers officially removed the interim tag and named Daniel Brière their new general manager last month alongside new president of hockey operations Keith Jones, the former NHLer said no one on the franchise's roster was safe this summer.

"The position that we're in right now, we have to listen," Brière said during an appearance on 94.1 WIP in May, per Ryan Quigley of The Hockey News. "There's a lot of good young players on our team, but at the same time, if it's better for the organization to move in a different direction, we have to listen. There's no one that's above the team, and I'm gonna listen on everyone.

"Now, I expect most of our young guys, including Carter Hart, to be back, but I have to be fair for the organization and the fans to listen if there's a better offer elsewhere."

Provorov had been included in various trade rumors leading up to this season's deadline. TSN's Darren Dreger reported in March that the Flyers were taking calls on the veteran defenseman, adding that it would "take a large offer to move him."

The Flyers selected Provorov seventh overall in the 2015 draft, and he quickly emerged as one of the team's top-four defensemen. In 532 games across seven seasons, he notched 65 goals and 152 assists while averaging 24:05 of time on ice.

The 26-year-old is coming off a 2022-23 season in which he tallied six goals and 21 assists in 82 games. He's signed through the 2024-25 season on a deal worth $6.75 million annually.

With Zach Werenski on the top pairing, Provorov figures to slot into Columbus's second defense pairing in 2023-24 alongside Adam Boqvist.

In Petersen, the Flyers are getting a potential replacement for Hart. The 28-year-old has spent his entire five-year career with the Kings and is coming off a 2022-23 season in which he posted a 5-3-2 record, a 3.75 goals-against average and an .868 save percentage in 10 games.

Petersen isn't the same caliber player as Hart, but moving on from the latter would be a no-brainer if the Flyers can receive some significant assets in exchange for the netminder that can help accelerate their rebuild.

Petersen is under contract through the 2024-25 season on a deal worth $5 million annually. The Kings were likely happy to move on from him to free up the cap space to re-sign pending free-agent defenseman Vladislav Gavrikov this summer.

The New York Rangers don't intend to interview Patrick Roy as part of their coaching search, according to the New York Post's Mollie Walker.

"John Hynes and Peter Laviolette remain the front-runners for the open job behind the Blueshirts bench," Walker reported.

Roy is widely considered one of the greatest goaltenders ever. He was a three-time Vezina Trophy winner and lifted the Stanley Cup on four occasions.

The 57-year-old made the transition to coaching in 2013-14 and guided the Colorado Avalanche to the playoffs in his first season. He unexpectedly resigned as head coach and vice president of hockey operations in August 2016.

The full circumstances behind Roy's departure aren't known. At the time, he cited philosophical differences between himself and other Avs officials.

The Hall of Famer hasn't coached in the NHL since then, with Walker speculating teams might be concerned history would repeat itself in terms of how his Colorado tenure ended.

Roy is fresh off leading the QMJHL's Quebec Remparts to a Memorial Cup triumph, though, which helped to rebuild his stock a bit. The head coach and GM indicated the 2022-23 season would be his last behind the bench for the organization.

It was easy to connect the dots and see how Roy might be preparing for a return to the NHL. Leaving the Remparts would give him the freedom to pursue any new opportunities.

Larry Brooks of the New York Post argued why his presence would greatly benefit the Rangers, who moved on from Gerard Gallant after just two seasons. New York lost to the New Jersey Devils in the first round of the playoffs after getting to the conference final in 2022.

Based on Walker's report, the Rangers don't see Roy as a serious candidate, however, so his comeback won't be unfolding in the Big Apple.

New Jersey's MetLife Stadium has played host to some pretty big events over the years, but it has never hosted an outdoor NHL game.

That's going to change next year.

The New York Rangers, New York Islanders, New Jersey Devils and Philadelphia Flyers will participate in the 2024 Navy Federal Credit Union NHL Stadium Series at MetLife Stadium in February, the league announced Saturday.

The Devils will play the Flyers on Feb. 17 before a New York rivalry showdown between the Rangers and Islanders on Feb. 18.

NHL executive vice president and chief content editor Steve Mayer said Saturday:

"We had always wanted to go back to play a game a MetLife Stadium. It's always been an interest of ours. MetLife is an extremely difficult place to think about doing a Winter Classic because of the two NFL teams that are in that building, the Jets and the Giants. So we also had been talking to them on and off and been interested for a long time.

"There's been many iterations of what we wanted to do here, but when we started getting into the matchups, the game, the tri-state area and the great hockey that right now is being played in the New York area, we felt like, 'Wouldn't this be unique and different?' And always trying to keep the Stadium Series and all our outdoor games fresh and the ideas fresh, wouldn't it be great to go with a doubleheader?"

The Devils-Flyers matchup is slated to be a night game, Mayer said. The timing for the Rangers-Islanders tilt has yet to be determined. Both games will be broadcasted on ESPN.

There are now four outdoor games scheduled for the 2023-24 season.

The Calgary Flames and Edmonton Oilers will compete in the 2023 Tim Hortons NHL Heritage Classic at Commonwealth Stadium in Edmonton on Oct. 29, and the Vegas Golden Knights will take on the Seattle Kraken in the 2024 Discover NHL Winter Classic at T-Mobile Park in Seattle on Jan. 1.

The NHL has hosted a total of 37 regular-season outdoor games in what has become an annual tradition for the league.

The four teams competing in the 2024 Stadium Series are no stranger to taking their talents outdoors.

The Flyers, along with the Boston Bruins, have played the second-most outdoor games in the NHL with five appearances. The Flyers most recently played outdoors against the Bruins in 2021 at Lake Tahoe.

The Rangers have played four outdoor games, the most recent being the 2018 Winter Classic against the Buffalo Sabres at Citi Field.

The Devils and Islanders have each played outdoors once. They both lost to the Rangers in the 2014 Stadium Series at Yankee Stadium.

The Rangers, Islanders and Devils all reached the playoffs during the 2022-23 season. While The Flyers are more in a rebuilding phase, the team still boasts one of the more popular markets in the NHL.

Given the location of the event and the teams competing, the 2023 Stadium Series should be a hit.

Patrick Kane will be recovering for an expected four to six months after he underwent hip resurfacing surgery Thursday, per Sportsnet's Elliotte Friedman.

That timeline means Kane could be ready to play at the start of the 2023-24 season. Kane's agent, Pat Brisson, said the 34-year-old "wants to play for a long time," Friedman reported.

Kane, an impending unrestricted free agent, was traded to the New York Rangers in February on the final season of an eight-year, $84 million contract with the Chicago Blackhawks.

Kane's potential absence for the first two months of next season could add a wrinkle to negotiations for the future Hall of Famer's next contract.

The last time Kane penned a deal, he was coming off championship wins in 2010 and 2013. At a $10.5 million average annual value, his eight-year deal with the Chicago Blackhawks marked the most expensive contract in NHL history when it began in 2015-16, just after Kane and the Blackhawks celebrated their third title in five seasons.

Eight years later, both Kane's play and his earning potential look different.

The star winger turns 35 in November and finished last season with 57 points, a full-season career low. He is still a prolific scorer—Kane recorded his 15th 20-goal campaign despite the mid-season move—but is a slower skater and drives possession less regularly. During the Rangers' disappointing first-round exit, he was held to just one goal in seven games against the New Jersey Devils.

Kane's former teammate Jonathan Toews, whose matching deal with Kane also expires this offseason, is considering retirement due to ongoing health issues. Kane, however, wants to keep playing.

Kane said before last season's trade deadline that he wants to play with the Rangers. New York, a team in the midst of a search for a new head coach, must decide if it is worth working out a new deal with the star winger, even given his nebulous start date for next season.

John Hynes will be in search of a new job this offseason after being fired as head coach of the Nashville Predators on Tuesday, but he will reportedly be in the mix for another franchise's head coaching search.

According to The Athletic's Arthur Staple, Hynes is among the candidates being considered by the New York Rangers.

The Rangers are seeking a replacement for Gerard Gallant, who mutually agreed to part ways with the team this month after being eliminated in the first round of the playoffs by the rival New Jersey Devils in seven games. New York went 99-46-19 in two seasons under Gallant, placing third in the Metropolitan Division this year with a record of 47-22-13.

The series loss to the Devils, which came after the Rangers had won the first two games, was even more disappointing after the massive expectations New York faced entering the postseason.

The team had acquired star wingers Patrick Kane and Vladimir Tarasenko at the trade deadline this season in hopes of making a deep playoff run following last year's trip to the Eastern Conference Final. Both Kane and Tarasenko will be unrestricted free agents this summer.

Hynes, who was replaced by former Florida Panthers interim coach Andrew Brunette on Tuesday, had coached the Predators for a little over three seasons after being hired midway through the 2019-20 campaign.

Nashville had a record of 134-95-18 during Hynes' tenure and never finished higher than fourth place in the Central Division. The team failed to make the playoffs for the first time since 2013-14 after going 42-31-8 this season.

Despite a disappointing run in Nashville, Hynes could have an inside track to securing the Rangers' position. Staple pointed out that the 48-year-old is a former college teammate of Rangers general manager Chris Drury.