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MATT BOLDY LOVES playing hockey in Minnesota. The way the community supports the sport at all levels. The thousands of fans who watch the Minnesota Wild in warm-ups. And, if he’s being honest, the level of celebrity an NHL player can attain after just 47 games in the show.

“It’s crazy. Everyone’s a huge fan,” the 21-year-old told ESPN. “Can’t really go anywhere without getting recognized, which is pretty cool in a lot of ways.”

Of course, scoring 39 points in those 47 games can get one noticed. Being the rookie who helped power the Wild to their most successful regular season in franchise history will earn that recognition.

Marco Rossi watched from afar as Boldy, who was his linemate with the AHL Iowa Wild, lived the NHL dream. They’re both first-round draft picks and among the best young forward prospects in the league. Boldy was called up to contribute to the Wild while Rossi was getting his reps in the AHL, one year after COVID-19 complications nearly derailed his career.

Was it inspiring? Like, if Boldy could do that in the NHL, could Rossi do that?

“Yeah, of course,” Rossi said with a laugh. “But I don’t really like to focus too much about that.”

Rossi, 20, played two games with the Wild last season and hopes to play many more.

“Every hockey player dreams, like since day one, to play hockey one day in the NHL. That’s the best league in the world,” Rossi said. “It would mean a lot for me, but I know nobody’s gonna give it to me. You have to earn that spot.”

Boldy and Rossi are part of the wave of young players who have populated the Minnesota roster in recent seasons. Joel Eriksson Ek is 26. Jordan Greenway is 25. So is Kirill Kaprizov, the franchise’s biggest star and the face of that youth movement. One of the catalysts for the Wild’s recent success is striking that balance every NHL team seeks to strike: Talented kids meshing with productive veterans such as Mats Zuccarello, Ryan Hartman and the majority of their defense corps.

“We’ve got a good balance. I think part of the beauty of it is that the older guys embrace the youth,” general manager Bill Guerin said. “They’re excited to have Boldy on the team. They’re excited about Marco. They’re excited to see Greenway and Ek take steps in their careers. They’re not threatened by them at all. They want them to be good and they help them. They just want to win. And they realize we all need each other to do that.”

Now it’s up to Boldy and Rossi to reward that excitement.


DID BOLDY OUTPERFORM Guerin’s expectations last season?

“One hundred percent,” the Wild GM said with a laugh.

Boldy was drafted 12th overall in 2019 as a highly skilled winger from the U.S. National Team Development Program. It was a banner year for that program, which produced Boldy, first overall pick Jack Hughes, Trevor Zegras and Cole Caufield, among others in that draft class.

He spent two seasons at Boston College, earning a spot in the final 10 for the Hobey Baker Award as a sophomore. He joined the Wild organization in March 2021 and was hyped as being part of that young wave of talented forwards set to power the roster.

“It’s so cool, honestly, just to be considered in that category with Kirill, watching him every day,” Boldy said. “You look up to those guys. You want to be as good as Kirill. You soak up everything they have to say. But you gotta go out there and earn that. It’s about going up there and earning your way into that spot.”

Last season, Boldy earned a valuable spot in the Wild lineup: playing the vast majority of his minutes with Kevin Fiala, the forward who posted 33 goals and 85 points. He won’t have the same luxury this season. Fiala was traded to the Los Angeles Kings; his next contract was going to be too rich for the Wild’s salary-cap situation.

“Kev’s awesome. I mean, I’d be lying to you if I said I wasn’t a little bit disappointed seeing him go,” Boldy said. “I get it. There’s a lot of business to hockey too. But he’s an awesome player. He’s an awesome teammate. So it’s tough to see him go, but that’s kind of the nature of the game. You gotta find different ways to score and build chemistry with different players. And we got plenty of players on our team that are really good and that can hopefully make me a better player.”

Guerin scoffed at the idea that Boldy might be negatively impacted by Fiala’s departure.

“I’m not worried at all. Kevin’s a good player,” Guerin said. “Look, I’m sure that Colorado would love to have [Nazem] Kadri back. I’m sure Calgary wanted [Johnny] Gaudreau and [Matthew] Tkachuk back. You lose good players. That’s what happens.

“Matt Boldy’s going to be fine. As much as Kevin helped him, he helped Kevin.”

What Guerin is more concerned about is how Boldy adjusts to his opponents’ adjustments.

“The thing about these second-year players is that you’re not a secret anymore. Everyone knows how good you are,” Guerin said. “A veteran defenseman knows that if he doesn’t play Matt Boldy hard, he’s going to get burned. Sometimes that takes a second for a second-year forward to learn. It’s like, ‘Hey, these guys are playing me differently.’ And it’s like, yeah, because you’re good.”


MARCO ROSSI DOESN’T want to be defined by COVID-19. That much is clear.

“We don’t try to think too much about what happened like last year,” he said. “I focus and think more in the future than the past right now.”

Rossi left Wild training camp in February 2021 because of complications from COVID-19, for which he had tested positive the previous November. Rossi was diagnosed with myocarditis, an inflammation of the heart muscle. He returned to Austria to recover with family and resumed training in June 2021. He played 63 games in the AHL along with his brief stint with the Wild in January.

“The hardest part was to stay patient. It’s not gonna be done in two weeks or something like that,” he said. “After the recovery time, you gotta come back to training and try to get better and that’s not easy.”

Rossi said that in the beginning of his comeback, he worried too much about his heart. Was it really healthy? He’d feel something in his chest during training and worry. It took a while for him to fully believe that he was 100 percent as the doctors were telling him.

“Health-wise, it was a scare. But he’s come back from it. He’s healthy,” Guerin said.

Rossi was drafted No. 9 overall in 2020 by the Wild as a dynamic offensive center for the OHL Ottawa 67’s. Born in Austria, Rossi remembers navigating through some cultural differences in North America. Like, for example, the affinity for one of his favorite sports.

“Three years ago, I was talking in Ottawa that I like to watch Formula One,” he recalled. “Not many guys knew what that really was or how it worked.”

Things change.

“They promote it so good right now,” Rossi said. “I mean, with the Netflix show, it’s now something that so many people watch.”

Rossi has his engine primed for the NHL but doesn’t know if he’s in the race yet. The expectation is that he’ll make the leap to the main roster, but both Guerin and Rossi said that’s contingent on a strong training camp.

“I think he’ll do very well. He’s a smart kid. He analyzes where he’s at. There’s no secret to his work ethic and his competitiveness,” Guerin said. “I think his game will transition well, but he has to do it right off the hop. He has gotta come in and prove himself.”

Boldy, his friend and potential linemate, thinks he will.

“He can play,” Boldy said, laughing. “I think he’s just a really, really good skater. Really good on his edges. He’s got a lot of speed. He’s smart and scores goals. He can pass. He’s kind of got it all. He’s definitely got every tool that you need to be successful.”

The Wild have the tools now, too, thanks to this balance between established talents and emerging ones such as Boldy and Rossi.

“It’s really good. It’s a good mix between us,” Rossi said. “Because like the younger kids can learn a lot from the older guys and even like the older guys can learn a lot from the young guys. You can see everyone likes each other. That helps a team to push it all the way to the end.”

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Sources: Knights land Marner, give star 8 years

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Sources: Knights land Marner, give star 8 years

Mitch Marner was traded to the Vegas Golden Knights — with an eight-year extension in place, sources told ESPN on Monday. Forward Nicolas Roy will go to the Toronto Maple Leafs in return.

Marner’s new deal has a $12 million average annual value, according to sources. Marner, 28, was the biggest name entering Tuesday’s NHL free agency, and multiple teams were hoping to make pitches. Marner was the NHL’s fifth-leading scorer last season with 102 points — 36 more than the next-closest free agent. The winger was drafted by his hometown Maple Leafs with the No. 4 pick in 2015.

The Maple Leafs knew that Marner was looking to test free agency at the end of the season. Over the past few days, Toronto worked with Vegas, which was Marner’s preferred destination, on a trade. The Maple Leafs held Marner’s rights until just before midnight Tuesday.

Had Marner become an unrestricted free agent, he couldn’t have signed a deal for more than seven years.

Marner finished a six-year deal that paid him $10.9 million annually. Marner, who played for Team Canada at Four Nations and likely will make their Olympic team, has 221 goals and 741 points in nine NHL seasons.

Toronto general manager Brad Treliving has stayed busy this week, re-signing John Tavares and Matthew Knies while trading for Utah forward Matias Maccelli earlier Monday.

Roy, 28, is a center who is entering Year 4 of a five-year deal that pays him $3 million annually.

Ahead of the Marner trade, the Golden Knights created cap space by sending defenseman Nicolas Hague to the Nashville Predators on Monday.

The deal makes Marner the highest-paid player on Vegas, however, center Jack Eichel ($10 million AAV) is entering the final year of his contract and is eligible to sign an extension this summer. The Golden Knights might not be done this offseason. According to sources, defenseman Alex Pietrangelo is expected to go on long-term injured reserve, which could create more flexibility.

Sign-and-trades ahead of free agency are becoming a trend for NHL teams that know they will not sign their coveted player; last season, the Carolina Hurricanes dealt Jake Guentzel‘s rights to the Tampa Bay Lightning before he signed a seven-year deal.

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Sources: Panthers keeping Marchand, Ekblad

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Sources: Panthers keeping Marchand, Ekblad

Hours after re-signing Aaron Ekblad, the Florida Panthers kept another integral piece of their Stanley Cup team by re-signing Brad Marchand to a six-year contract extension, sources told ESPN’s Emily Kaplan.

Marchand’s deal has an average annual value of $5.25 million, sources told Kaplan.

Coming to terms with Ekblad on an eight-year extension worth $6.1 million annually left the Panthers with what PuckPedia projected to be $4.9 million in salary cap space.

There was the possibility that Marchand, 37, could have left the Panthers for a more lucrative offer elsewhere considering there were teams that had more than enough cap space to sign him.

Instead? Marchand, who arrived ahead of the NHL trade deadline from the Boston Bruins, appears as if he will remain in South Florida for the rest of his career.

Acquiring defenseman Seth Jones from the Chicago Blackhawks and then adding Marchand were two decisions made by Panthers general manager Bill Zito with the intent of seeing the Panthers win a second consecutive Stanley Cup as part of a run that now has included three straight Cup Final appearances.

Marchand, who was a pending UFA entering the final day before free agency begins Tuesday, used the 2025 postseason to further cement why the Panthers and other teams throughout the NHL would still seek his services. He scored 10 goals and finished with 20 points in 23 playoff games.

For all the contributions he made, his greatest came during the Cup Final series against the Edmonton Oilers.

Marchand, who previously won a Cup with the Bruins back in 2011, opened the series with a goal in the first three games. That includes the two goals he scored in the Panthers’ 5-4 double-overtime win to tie the series with his second being the game-winning salvo.

He scored two more goals in a 5-2 win in Game 5 that allowed the Panthers to take a 3-1 series lead before returning to Sunrise, Florida, where they closed out the series with an emphatic 5-1 win.

Capturing a consecutive title created questions about whether the Panthers can win a third in a row. But there was the understanding that it might be difficult given there was only so much salary cap space to re-sign Conn Smythe winner Sam Bennett, Ekblad and Marchand.

Knowing there was a chance they could lose one, or more, of them, Zito laid the foundation to retain the trio. He began by signing Bennett to an eight-year contract worth $8 million annually on June 27 before using Monday to sign Ekblad and Marchand.

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Sources: Provorov nets 7-year deal from Jackets

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Sources: Provorov nets 7-year deal from Jackets

Ivan Provorov decided to forgo free agency, with the veteran defenseman finalizing a seven-year extension Monday worth $8.5 million annually to remain with the Columbus Blue Jackets, sources told ESPN, confirming earlier reports.

With free agency slated to start Tuesday, the 28-year-old was one of the most notable defenseman who had a chance to hit the open market.

Provorov’s decision to stay with the Blue Jackets comes shortly after it was reported that Aaron Ekblad also avoided free agency by agreeing to an eight-year extension to remain with the Florida Panthers. That now leaves players such as Vladislav Gavrikov, Ryan Lindgren, and Dmitry Orlov among the more prominent pending UFAs who could be available should they fail to strike a deal with their current teams.

Retaining Provorov comes months after a season that witnessed the Blue Jackets shed the title of being a rebuilding franchise to one that could challenge for the playoffs in 2025-26.

Four consecutive seasons without the playoffs created the idea that the 2024-25 campaign could be another challenging one. But a six-game winning streak in January saw Columbus post a 22-17-6 record to create the belief that a turnaround could be in order.

The Jackets closed the season with another six-game winning streak but fell short of the final Eastern Conference wild-card playoff spot, which went to the Montreal Canadiens by two points.

Provorov would finish with seven goals and 33 points in 82 games while his 23 minutes, 21 seconds in average ice time was second behind Norris Trophy finalist Zach Werenski.

Re-signing Provorov comes in an offseason that saw the Blue Jackets also strengthen their bottom-six forward corps by adding Charlie Coyle and Miles Wood in a trade with the Colorado Avalanche.

PuckPedia projects that the Blue Jackets now have $20.957 million in cap space ahead of free agency.

TSN was first to report news of Provorov’s decision.

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