Welcome to a summer edition of Around the NHL. The news cycle may have crawled to a standstill, but there are a few interesting developments to keep you updated, as league executives are largely recharging at the cottage.

Brady Tkachuk demanded a trade to the Florida Panthers, and the Ottawa Senators acquiesced. It’s the summer saga that keeps on giving, as Tkachuk happily joined his brother, Matthew, in Florida, while Ottawa continues to cope with the loss of its captain. And from our vantage point, it’s compounded by the fact that Daniel Alfredsson joined the Maple Leafs as associate coach. It’s apparently an outcome that could’ve been expedited. Senators general manager Steve Staios revealed that he had an inclination Tkachuk wanted out for over a year, during a recent podcast appearance on Locked On Senators.

“I think over the last… probably over a year, that I saw signs that potentially Brady wouldn’t be here long term,” Staios said. “Obviously, we want to take the time and do everything I can as the manager to protect and sort of deflect. There’s some things that were out of our control that we were trying to deal with.”

Ottawa eventually traded Tkachuk to Florida in exchange for the ninth overall pick in the 2026 NHL Draft. It quickly moved the pick to the San Jose Sharks for forward William Eklund, a solid top-six winger that fits the core’s timeline.

“We’ve developed an identity and built a competitive team that we continue to work on adding to,” Staios said. “So I saw signs of it. I think ultimately when I did have that open and honest discussion with Brady and got some feedback, we realized at that point in time that I was going to engage in a process to make a trade.

“I think in light of the timing, I think the player had two years left on his contract. I think we’ve seen in the past when players like this are left a little bit longer on two things happen. One is it could become a distraction to the team and two is the return on value isn’t quite there. So we were prudent, we engaged in the process, went through that diligently and worked towards a solution.”

This appears to be a case of a general manager trying to build some goodwill through the press, after what’s been a disastrous offseason in Ottawa.

Jason Robertson signed a one-year contract with the Dallas Stars worth $12 million, putting an end to one of the offseason’s most compelling storylines. Robertson reportedly rejected a titanic offer from the Seattle Kraken that would’ve reportedly made him the NHL’s highest-paid player. Although the Stars are pressed for cap space, both parties found common ground on a one-year deal, that keeps the team positioned as a leading contender entering 2026-27.

“Everyone can see that they are in a little (salary cap) crunch,” Robertson said via Tracey Myers of NHL.com. “At the end of the day, they had my rights, right? I wasn’t free to go anywhere this year so, the chances of staying in Dallas this offseason were high obviously because of that. It just happened in this way and obviously we’ll have time to revisit it later this year.”

Robertson is one of the NHL’s best forwards, coming off a season where he posted 45 goals and 96 points in 82 games. With the one-year deal now signed, the pressure is on the Stars to go all-in to actualize their best chance of winning an elusive Cup.

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