The calendar has turned to August which is usually one of the quieter periods in the hockey world. However, the end of July brought some notable news across the NHL which is recapped in our key stories.
Nosek Heads Home: A veteran pivot is heading home after 11 NHL seasons, as Tomas Nosek signed a contract with Pardubice in his native Czechia. The 33-year-old was a reliable fourth-line defensive center in his prime while being capable of putting up 15-18 points most years. However, injuries were an issue the last couple of seasons which likely hurt his market in free agency this summer.
Nosek leaves the NHL with 514 career games under his belt where he has 47 goals and 73 assists along with a 53.5% success rate at the faceoff dot.
Penguins Extend A UFA: The Penguins have a long list of pending unrestricted free agents for next summer but they were able to shrink that list by one. The team announced that they’ve signed center Thomas Novak to a three-year, $13.95MM contract extension. The 29-year-old played his first full season with Pittsburgh last season after coming over from Nashville in a trade for Michael Bunting.
Novak picked up 16 goals and 26 assists in 82 games, coming just shy of his career highs in all three categories. He’ll give them some extra security down the middle with Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin both in the final seasons of their respective contracts.
Five For Celebrini: Five-year terms for core young centers has been the theme in recent weeks and that continued as the Sharks signed Macklin Celebrini to a five-year, $94MM contract extension. The $18.8MM AAV is the highest in NHL history, surpassing Leo Carlsson’s $18MM from a month ago. Celebrini was one of the top scorers in the league last season, recording 115 points in 82 games while also shining internationally.
The deal, which kicks in for the 2027-28 season, buys San Jose one extra season of club control on the 2024 top pick while it allows Celebrini to be eligible to test unrestricted free agency in 2032 when he’ll be 26 years old. Already, it looks like he could have a chance of setting a new record in terms of AAV on that contract.
Sharks Sign Another One: Celebrini wasn’t the only contract of significance that the Sharks signed. The team also inked restricted free agent winger Collin Graf to a three year, $12.75MM contract. The 23-year-old completed his first full NHL campaign last season and fared rather well, tallying 21 goals and 25 assists in 81 games while averaging over 16 minutes per game of ice time.
Graf was an undrafted college free agent signing back in 2024 and it looks like San Jose has added a core piece. Notably, Graf wasn’t eligible to be offer-sheeted while he will still be a restricted free agent, this time with arbitration eligibility, when his deal comes to an end in 2029.
Sens Have Some Work To Do: In a week that was headlined by several signed contracts, we end on one where talks aren’t going well as Ottawa and winger Drake Batherson are believed to be far apart in extension talks. Batherson has upped his point total each year and is coming off a 33-goal, 71-point showing in 2025-26. He’s in top-line production territory and as we’ve seen this summer, consistent production is getting much more expensive.
Slated to make $4.95MM this coming season, Batherson should be able to more than double that if he has a similar showing in 2026-27. At this point, that’s a price point the Senators aren’t willing to get to. If they want to get an eight-year deal done, he needs to be signed by September 15th.
After that, the maximum term of a contract drops to seven seasons.
Photo courtesy of Stan Szeto-Imagn Images.