The Boston Bruins signed forward Fraser Minten to a seven-year contract extension worth $50.4 million US on Tuesday, the most significant transaction on a busy day around the National Hockey League with training camps set to open next week.
The deal carries an average annual value of $7.2 million US and runs through the 2033-34 season, according to TSN and the Boston Globe. It does not take effect until 2027-28. Minten will play the coming season on the final year of his entry-level contract.
Minten had 17 goals and 35 points in 82 games last season. Boston acquired him from the Toronto Maple Leafs, along with first- and fourth-round draft picks, in the trade that sent defenceman Brandon Carlo to Toronto at the 2025 deadline.
In Detroit, the Red Wings’ search for a general manager lost another candidate. Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reported Tuesday that Detroit Tigers general manager Jeff Greenberg had withdrawn his name from consideration for the job.
The Red Wings have been without a permanent general manager since Steve Yzerman stepped down on July 15 and moved into a senior advisory role with governor and chief executive Chris Ilitch, ending a seven-season run running the club. Detroit has not qualified for the playoffs in 10 consecutive seasons.
Ansar Khan of MLive.com wrote that the club should promote assistant general manager Shawn Horcoff if no suitable external candidate emerges, noting that camp opens next week, that captain Dylan Larkin’s trade status remains unresolved, and that restricted free-agent defenceman Simon Edvinsson is still unsigned. Horcoff has been Detroit’s assistant general manager for three years and is general manager of the club’s American Hockey League affiliate in Grand Rapids.
Edvinsson’s price may have moved in the meantime. Max Smith of Detroit Hockey Now argued that the Vancouver Canucks’ new deal for defenceman Zeev Buium has raised the bar. Vancouver agreed to terms with Buium on Sept. 4 on an eight-year extension worth $75.04 million US, an average annual value of $9.38 million US, beginning in 2027-28. The contract includes a full no-movement clause and a modified 15-team no-trade list over its final three seasons.
Buium, 20, had three goals and nine assists in 45 games for Vancouver last season after arriving from Minnesota in the December trade that sent Quinn Hughes to the Wild. Edvinsson, 23, is coming off his entry-level contract. He recorded 25 points in 72 games last season and 31 points in 78 games the year before.
Elsewhere, former NHL centre Jean-Sebastien Dea announced his retirement, Rotowire reported. Dea, 32, played 37 NHL games with Pittsburgh, New Jersey, Buffalo and Arizona between 2016-17 and 2022-23, recording five goals and two assists. He spent most of his professional career in the American Hockey League and the KHL.
For the Edmonton Oilers, the countdown is shorter than most. Rookie camp opens Sept. 11, with the main group reporting for medicals and physicals Sept. 16. The eight-game pre-season schedule begins Sept. 21 with split-squad games against the Calgary Flames.
Edmonton opens the regular season Sept. 29 at home against Vancouver, the first half of a home-and-home with the Canucks that concludes Oct. 1. The Oilers will start camp without forwards Mattias Janmark and Matt Savoie, defenceman Alec Regula and goaltender Frederik Andersen, all of whom the club has said are unavailable while recovering from medical procedures or off-season injuries.
