Free agent frenzy has died down and we’re now in the quiet period of the year for hockey.
Still, that doesn’t mean interesting things aren’t happening around the league. An Edmonton Oiler superstar will co-own a sports team, the Carolina Hurricanes are making moves, and a defenceman has an injury.
Let’s dig into all of that in the latest NHL Notebook!

Leon Draisaitl x Icon League

On Wednesday, Leon Draisaitl posted a video to his Instagram in collaboration with The Icon League, an indoor soccer league. It appears that Draisaitl will be a co-owner alongside Peruvian former soccer player, Claudio Pizarro for FC Plyrs United.
Now, my soccer writing career was short-lived, but according to OMR.com, the league was created by German streamer Elias Nerlich and the recently retired Toni Kross. The latter spent the past 10 seasons with soccer giant Real Madrid, winning the Champions League at the start of June before riding off into the sunset.
Other individuals who are involved in the league are Spanish soccer player David Alba, French soccer player Franck Ribéry, and German rapper Luciano. It appears that Draisaitl will just co-own, not play, as the league starts Sep. 1 this year.
Here’s what our friends at Oilersnation Germany said:
“The Indoor-Soccer-League called Icon-League was founded by Elias Nerlich (EliasN97) one of the biggest, if not THE biggest content creator in Germany and Toni Kroos, one of the greatest german soccer players of all time. There are 14 Teams represented by their Teamheads. Those are Soccerplayer, former Soccerplayer, Rapper, Content-creator and other celebrities known in germany. Most known might be David Alaba, Franck Ribery and Luciano. The League will start on September, 1st in the LanXess Arena, the home of the Cologne Sharks. Every team has 13 games and will collect 3 points per win. The Finals will be in the brand-new SAP Garden in Munich. The games will be Live-streamed on Twitch. Most likely at 7 or 8pm CET. That’s all we got so far. There is a Video about some more detailed infos, I hope the translation can help you out if you need that informations.”

Evgeny Kuznetsov waived by Carolina

Moving to hockey, as the last time I played soccer I sprained my foot, it appears that Evgeny Kuznetsov is heading to the Kontinental Hockey League.
It was reported a few days ago by the Russian website championat.com that Kuznetsov is signing a four-year deal with SKA St. Petersburg of the KHL, but his agent quickly halted the breaks on that train. Two days later Frank Seravalli reported that he and the Carolina Hurricanes were mutually terminating his contract. Both the Hurricanes and Washington Capitals (who retained 50% of his deal) aren’t on the hook for his cap hit.
The Russian centre was selected 26th overall in the 2010 draft, and made his debut in the National Hockey League during the 2013-14 season where he scored three goals and 9 points in 17 games. Over the course of his 11 seasons with the Capitals, he scored 171 goals and 568 points in 723 games. He won a cup with the team in 2018, scoring a massive overtime goal against the Pittsburgh Penguins and finished that run with 12 goals and 32 points in 24 games.
After being waived, Kuznetsov was traded to the Carolina Hurricanes before the trade deadline, where he scored two goals and seven points in 20 games. Always a playoff performer though, Kuznetsov had four goals and six points in 10 postseason games.
Overall, it was a great NHL career for the 32-year-old.

Jack Drury re-signed with Carolina

Speaking of Carolina, the Hurricanes re-signed forward Jack Drury to a two-year deal with a cap hit of $1.72 million.
The left-shot centre was selected in the second round of the 2018 draft and became a regular in Carolina’s lineup last season, scoring eight goals and 27 points. On top of that, he scored his first career postseason goal and had five points in 11 games for the Hurricanes in the postseason.
As of now, the Hurricanes have $13.857 million in cap space and need to re-sign two restricted free agent centres in Martin Nečas and Seth Jarvis. The former has been discussed a lot in regards to an offer sheet, as he scored 24 goals and 63 points in 77 games last season (down from 28 goals and 71 points in 82 games the season prior), but is also a right-shot centre who needs an opportunity.
It’ll be interesting to see what the Hurricanes do as the summer progresses.

Torey Krug diagnosed with pre-arthritic issues in his left ankle 

Unfortunately for the St. Louis Blues, they’ll be without one of their better defencemen to start the season. It was announced on Tuesday that Torey Krug has been diagnosed with “pre-arthritic issues in his left ankle.”
According to Frank Seravalli, Krug will rehab the ankle and will be re-evaluated in six to eight weeks, but if surgery is required, he’ll miss the entirety of the 2024-25 season.
The undrafted left-shot defenceman started his career with the Boston Bruins in 2011-12 and scored 67 goals and 337 points in nine seasons, missing out on their Cup year but making several deep runs in the postseason, including a loss to the Blues in the 2019 postseason. 
In Oct. 2020, he signed a seven-year deal with the Blues with an annual cap hit of $6.5 million. Through his four seasons in Missouri, he has 22 goals and 146 points in 255 games played, but has played just seven postseason games.
In the summer of 2023, the Blue attempted to trade him to the Philadelphia Flyers, but he elected not to waive it as he has a full no-trade clause until the end of the 2024-25 season.
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